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NOBLE DEEDS 



THE GREAT AND BRAVE. 



AS PORTRAYED BY THE WORLD'S GREAT WRITERS 
OF PROSE AND POETRY. 

GATHERED FROM MANY AGES AND NATIONS. 

A Record of Grand Achievements ; Heroic Sacrifices ; Valiant Exploits ; Knightly 

Virtues; Patriotism; Integrity; Magnanimity; Devotion to Duty; 

Fidelity to Home and Kindred, and True Friendship. 

SELECTED AND ARRANGED WITH EXPLANATORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL MATTER. 

^>^" V -'"' BY 

R. S. HARTZELL. 

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 

REV. HERBERT W. MORRIS, D.D., 

Author of "Work Days of God;" "Testimony of the Ages;" "The Celestial 
Symbol Interpreted," Etc. 

ATTRACTIVELY ILLUSTRATED. 

■ ■*>* cQPwewr, %r 

" Lives of Great Men all remind us \ J Q OfV 

We can make our lives sublime, & =. " - »CK 

And departing, leave behind us \v • 
Footprints on the sands of Time." ^^£f ty^ x u(H6^ 
— Longfellow 



PHILADELPHIA, PA.: 

HENRY L. WARREN & CO., PUBLISHERS. 

1884. 



\^4 



THE LIBRARY 

OF CONGRESS 

WASHINGTON j 



Copyright, 1884, 

MY 

R. S. H ART Z ELL. 



PREFACE. 



To a great extent character is molded by example. The 
company which is kept and the books which are read not only 
make manifest to others the tastes and tendencies of the 
individual, but they also go very far toward forming his 
character and determining his destiny. We do not expect to 
" gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles." Neither do we 
look to men whose minds are occupied with trifling subjects 
and puerile thoughts for heroic deeds and grand achievements. 
If a man is to be noble he must emulate honorable examples, 
and his mind must be filled with thoughts that are pure and 
sublime. 

This fact should be strongly impressed upon the minds of 
the young. They are soon to become the active members of 
society. In order that they may be fitted to meet with com- 
posure the stern realities of life, and act well their parts in its 
busy scenes, their attention should be called to the noble 
deeds of the men and women who, in the ages past, have been 
faithful to their trusts, and as one of the rewards of their 
fidelity, have won an imperishable renown. Literature which 
brings such examples to their view will do much toward 
making them faithful in the performance of the duties of every- 
day life, and in causing them to become valiant champions of 
the right, and stalwart defenders of the truth. 

i 



11 PREFACE. 

Moved by these thoughts, the Compiler believed that, by 
bringing into a single volume, and thus placing within easy 
reach of all who desire to read, a record of great deeds and 
noble efforts which have been described by writers worthy of 
their exalted themes, he would perform a service of real value 
to the masses of the American people. In carrying this belief 
into action, he has aimed to furnish a work which will com- 
bine intense interest with great practical value. It has been 
his earnest effort to make a book which will cheer and profit, 
and which will exert a positive and a powerful influence for good 
upon all who become familiar with its contents. 

In the arrangement of this work an effort has been made to 
fully develop two points which were considered essential to 
the highest usefulness of a book of this class, and which, it is 
believed, will strongly commend it to popular favor : — 

First — To make the finest possible collection of writings 
concerning the " Noble Deeds of the Great and Brave." For 
the accomplishment of this purpose, the chronicles and his- 
tories, the records and the ballads of " many ages and nations" 
have been laid under contribution, and the almost limitless 
field has been diligently searched for brilliant illustrations of 
heroic deeds. It is believed that this work presents a wider 
range and brings together a larger number of memorable 
historical occurrences than any other volume which has been 
brought before the public. The chronological order of the 
events described has not been regarded, as the plan of group- 
ing them under appropriate headings seemed equally useful 
and far more attractive. 

Second — Not only has the work been wholly devoted to 
high and noble topics, but care has been taken to secure the 
works of " The World's Greatest Writers of Prose and Poetry" 



PREFACE. Ill 

whenever the nature and extent of their literary productions 
embraced the subjects under consideration. In a few instances 
the work of comparatively unknown authors has been 
accepted, and a limited number of anonymous productions 
have been used. But in all these cases a fitting delineation of 
the grand events which were described, or an able presentation 
of the great truths which they illustrated, has been the test of 
selection. 

It will be apparent that this work not only treats of the high- 
est themes, but that it also contains many of the choicest gems 
of the literature of many ages and different lands. Forceful 
narratives, brilliant descriptions and stirring poems are here 
presented in rich abundance. Some of the best works of many 
of the leading English and American authors have been 
secured ; the beauties of the literature of ancient Greece and 
Rome have been laid under tribute, and translations from 
brilliant writers of modern Continental Europe, add to the 
importance and interest of the collection. Several " old time 
worthies," which are masterpieces, as well as universal favorites, 
will be gladly welcomed by many readers. 

To the following publishers and authors the Compiler 
desires to express his special obligation for their kindness and 
courtesy in allowing him to make selections from their copy- 
righted works : — 

Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston and New York, 
for the use of poems from the works of Longfellow, Lowell, 
Whittier and Holmes ; Mr. Parke Godwin, for leave to quote 
from the late William Cullen Bryant's poetry ; Messrs. Harper 
& Brothers, for the use of several articles and poems from 
their periodical publications. Also to various others from 
whose writings single selections have been made. 



IV PREFACE. 

The Compiler's share of the labor and his responsibility is 
well expressed by the words of Montaigne : " I have only 
made a nosegay of culled flowers, and have brought nothing 
of my own but the thread that ties them together." He now 
submits the result of his labors to the judgment of an intelligent 
and discriminating public. He has endeavored to make a 
book by which the reader will be both pleased and profited — 
a volume which will inspire with high and noble purposes, 
fill the heart with loyal devotion to home and kindred, 
lead to conscientious action in all the affairs of life, encourage 
in the path of duty, stimulate to high endeavor, and cheer with 
the glorious hopes which are the common heritage of all 
faithful souls. 



R. S. Hartzell. 



Philadelphia, Pa., October, 1884.. 






CONTENTS. 



PART I— GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 



PAGE 



•'There Shall Be No Alps." John S. C. Abbott 17 

The Barons and King John. Henry Hallam ....'. 21 

Triumphs of Copernicus. Edward Everett 24 

Gustavus Vasa to the Delecarlians. Anonymous 26 

Columbus. Washington Irving, Frederic Schiller 28 

Arminius to his Soldiers. Arthur Murphy 32 

Marguerite, of France. Mrs. Felicia D. Hemans 33 

Queen Archidamia. Anonymous 37 

The Hebrew Race. Benjamin D' Israeli 40 

William the Silent and Philip II. Edmondo DeAmicis 41 

The Apostle of the Crusades. Sir Auirey DeVere 44 

A Valiant Swiss. James Montgomery 45 

Deborah. Flavius Josephus 47 

Oliver Cromwell. T. B. Macaulay, John Milton 48 

An Inspired Heroine. William Shakespeare, Frederic Schiller 5 1 

John Howard, the Prison Reformer. Edmund Burke, Williatn Lisle Bowles 58 
"Choose Each Man What Becomes a Brave Castilian!" William H. 

Prescott 62 

Peter the Great. Archibald Alison, F. R. S. 65 

"It is Finished; the Die is Cast!" Thomas DeQuincey 68 

"Liberty, Peace and Justice." Hon. J. B. Everhart 7° 

Susanna Wesley. Nashville Christian Advocate 74 

Queen Elizabeth. David Hume 76 

Emancipation of the Serfs. Hezekiah Butterworth 78 

Trials and Triumphs of Genius. Horace Greeley 81 

"Now I'm Made a Man for Life!" Heroes of Britain, etc 86 

Alfred the Great. Charles Dickens 87 

The Triumph of Greece. Robert Southey 88 

PART II— HEROIC SACRIFICES. 

John Maynard. Horatio Alger ; Jr 9 1 

A Story of Struggle and Victory. John B. Gough 93 

The Patriotic Courier. B. C. 490. Thomas Archer 96 

V 



VI CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

The Blacksmith of Ragenbach. Frank Murry 97 

Moliere's Last Day. Anonymous 99 

The Drummer Boy. Anonymous 100 

A Model Woman. Christian at Work 102 

Two Mothers. From the French of De Custine 104 

The Earl of Strafford and Charles I. Oliver Goldsmith 106 

Pastor Dankwardt. Mrs. Annie Fields', in Harper's Magazine 108 

Mahmoud. Leigh Hunt. no 

The Light Brigade at Balaclava. William H Russell, Alfred Tennyson 113 

Jephthah's Vow. N. P. Willis 117 

The Greeks at Thermopylae. Lord Byron, George Croly 120 

Regulus to the Carthaginians. Rev. Elijah Kellogg 122 

A Wife's Devotion. Matilda Betham '. 125 

The Broken Heart. Washingto7t Lrving, Thomas Moore 126 

The Roman Sentinel. Edward Bulwer Lytton 132 

"The Noblest Knight of Spain." Reginald Heber 133 

"Take These, for You will Want Them." Mrs. E. F. Ellet 136 

Death of Gustavus Adolphus. Nineteenth Century 138 

" Curfew Must Not Ring To-night. Rose Hartwick Thorpe 140 

Demosthenes. E. S. Creasy „ 142 

A Noble Example of Courage and Obedience. Mrs. F. D. Hemans 143 

The Devoted Women of Weinsburg. Gottf-ied August Buerger 146 

The Leap of Curtius. George Aspinwall. 149 

Heroism in Every- Day Life. Anonymous 151 

Florence Nightingale. Miss J. M. S. Carter, Edwin Arnold. 152 

The Siege of Leyden. Chicago Standard. 155 

A Valiant Suliote. Fitz-Green Halleck 159 

Lady Godiva. Alfred Tennyson 162 

A True Hero. Dinah Muloch Craik 166 



PART III— VALIANT EXPLOITS. 

The Maid of Saragossa. Lord Byron 169 

Heroic Americans. H. F. K. 172 

King's Mountain. Old Song 175 

Feminine Intrepidity. William Bobbins 176 

An Indian Hero. Lewistown (Me.) Gazette 177 

A Brave Girl. N. Y. Christian Advocate 178 

The Glove and the Lions. Leigh Hunt 180 

Mill River Ride, 1874. J. W.Donovan 181 

A Wonderful Feat. Anonymous ,. 182 

The Relief of Lucknow. Robert Lowell 183 

Heioism of Grace Darling. Williatn Wordsworth 186 

The Milkmaids of Dort. Harper's Young People 189 



CONTENTS. Vll 

PAGE 

The Battle of Lexington. Oliver Wendell Holmes 190 

John Sobieski Relieving Vienna, 1683. Capt. Charles King, U. S. A 192 

"I'll Try, Sir." National Intelligencer ... 197 

Bravery of Elizabeth Zane. Benson J. Lossing 199 

A Heroine of the Revolution. Mrs. E. E. Ellel 200 

Sergeant Jasper. Southern Patriot 205 

Miles Standish. Henry W. Longfellow 208 

" We have Met the Enemy and They are Ours." J. T. Headley 212 

Taylor at Buena Vista. H. W. Hilliard. 215 

A Courageous Woman. Madame De Genlis 216 

The Capture of Ticonderoga. George Bancroft 217 

The Keeping of the Bridge. T. B. Macaulay 219 

Catharine Vassent. E. Paxton Hood, D.D 223 

PART IV— KNIGHTLY VIRTUES. 

Flora MacDonald and the Pretender. Selected 227 

Heroic Virtues of Sir Philip Sidney. Anonymous 230 

"Here I Stand; I Cannot Do Otherwise; God Help Me!" Selected. 231 

Tamerlane and the Dervis. Nicholas Rowe 235 

King Henry, IV, at Ivry. T. B. Macaulay 238 

Lady Jane Grey. Wendell Phillips 240 

A Humane and Honorable Englishman. Speech of William Pitt 243 

Humanity of Robert Bruce. Sir Walter Scott 247 

A Promise is Sacred. Edward Gibbon 248 

Queen Philippa and the Burghers of Calais. John Frost 249 

Volney Becker, the Hero Sailor Boy. William Chambers 254 

The Connetable De Bourbon and Bayard. Archbishop Fenelon 257 

George, IV, and Washington. William M. Thackeray. 262 

Emir Hassan. William Cullen Bryant 265 

A Double Reward. Anonymous 266 

PART V— PATRIOTISM. 

Wat Tyler. Charles Dickens, Robert Southey 269 

Germanicus to His Mutinous Troops. Tacitus 273 

Degeneracy of Athens. Demosthenes 275 

Defence of Pra Del Tor. J. A. Wylie 276 

Henry, V, to His Soldiers at the Siege of Harfleur. William Shakespeare... 278 

The Song of Marion's Men. William Ctdlen Bryant 279 

Courage of an American Officer. Anonymous 281 

Toussaint L'Ouverture. William Wordsworth, John G.Whittier 282 

" Dead on the Field of Honor." From the French 284 

Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra. Edward Gibbon, William Ware 286 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Henry, V, and the Hermit of Dreux. Robert Southey 290 

Kosciusko. Thomas Campbell, Anonymous 292 

Tell On His Native Mountains. J. Sheridan Knowles 298 

Against Taxing America. Edmund Burke 300 

Against Bribery. Demosthenes 301 

Rienzi's Address. Mary Russell Mitford 303 

Cincinnatus. Oliver Goldsmith 304 

Fate of the Indians. Joseph Story 306 

Irish Aliens. Richard Lalor Sniel 307 

Spartacus to the Gladiators at Capua. Rev. Elijah Kellogg 309 

Warren's Address at BunKer Hill. John Pierpont 311 

''A Time to Pray and a Time to Fight." Lije of Muhlenburg. 312 

Rolla's Address to the Peruvians. R. B. Sheridan 314 

Paul Revere's Ride. Henry W. Longfellow., 315 

Telesile, the Heroine of Nancy. Selected 318 

Regulus to the Roman Senate. Rev. T.Dale 323 

The Young Tyrolese. Miss Agnes Strickland. 325 

Impressment of Americans. Richard Rush 329 

"Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death." Patrick Henry 330 

A Noble Queen. Flavius Josephus 333 

Verres Denounced. Cicero 335 

Herve Riel. Robert Browning 337 

A Patriot's Last Appeal. Robert Emmet , 341 

Reply to M. D. Breze. Mirabeau 344 

A Plea for Justice to the Cherokees. William Wirt. 345 

Leperdit, the Tailor. M. Betham Edwards 347 

Bruce to the Scots at Bannockburn. Robert Burns 348 

The Monk and the King. Eclectic Review 349 



PART VI.— INTEGRITY. 

Defence of Socrates, yames Thomson, Socrates 353 

The Prisoner of Chillon. Lord Byron 355 

" These Are My Jewels." Anonymotts 358 

"While I Live I Shall Despise the Peril." yohn P. Curran 359 

A Beautiful Story. S. T. Coleridge 360 

The Incorruptible Physician. From the German 361 

The Incorruptible Patriot. Edward C. Jones 363 

A Devoted Philanthropist. Hubert Howe Bancroft. 364 

A Noble Friend of Freedom. George Wm. Curtis, James Russell Lowell..,. 368 

Fabricius and King Pyrrhus. Fabricius 370 

The Early Christians. Edward Gibbon 371 

Noble Peasants. The World of Anecdote 372 

Alexander the Great and Abdolonymus. Quintus Curtius 373 



CONTENTS. ix 

PART VII— MAGNANIMITY. 



PAGE 



The Best Kind of Revenge. William Chambers 377 

The Soldier's Pardon. James Smith 379 

Paganini and the Street Player. The Great Violinists 381 

Hadrian and the Planter. Anonymous 382 

Generosity of Bermudo, I. De Liagno's Repertory 383 

Nothing Comes by Chance. Anonymous 384 

The Hermit and the Minstrel. Mrs. Anna Jameson 386 

The Father of His Country and the Yankee Boy. Golden Days 388 

A Philanthropic Pastor. Life of Fliedner 392 

Magnanimity of Saladin. Sir Walter Scott 394 

Bravery and Magnanimity of the Spartans. Plutarch 400 

After Forty Centuries. Golden Rule 401 

Royal Magnanimity. Anonymous 402 

Humboldt and the Young Scientist. Louis Agassiz 403 

Casimir, II, and Konarski. Anonymozis 404 

The Man of Ross. Alexattder Pope 405 

Last Hours of Madame Roland. Alphonso de Lamartine 406 

The Countess' Pillar. William Wordsworth 409 

The King and the Miller. Examiner and Chrotticle 410 

PART VIII— DEVOTION TO DUTY. 

The Heroes of Berkenhead. Miss E. G.Barber 413 

"One Hand for Injuries, Another for God." N. Y. Lndependent 415 

The Monk of Jarrow. Merriweathe/ 's "Glimmerings in the Dark." 416 

John Milton. William Wordsworth, Quarterly Review 418 

The Apostle of Temperance. Alexander M. Sullivan, M. P. 419 

Death of President Lincoln. Henry Ward Beecher 422 

Henry Martin at Shiraz. Dean Henry Alford 424 

A True Hero. Anonymous 426 

Obeying Orders. Anony??ious , 428 

The Key-note of a Successful Life. Rev. Daniel Wise, D. D 429 

Cardinal Woolsey to Thomas Cromwell. William Shakespeare 430 

Paul Before Festus and Agrippa. "The Ads.'" 432 

The Village Preacher. Oliver Goldsmith 434 

Gregory the Great. John G. Whittier 435 

A Deserved Rebuke. Anonymous 439 

The Great Apostle of Charity. Life of Oberlin 440 

"Not Weary in Well Doing." Stevenson's " Working and Prayijig." 446 

Wilberforce and Voltaire. William B. Sprague 447 

"Prince's Blood for Oxen's Blood." Frederic Schiller 449 

Indian Fortitude. Black Hawk 452 



X CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Fortitude of the Pilgrim Fathers. Rufus Choate 454 

Bourdaloue Before the King. Rev. C. M. Butler, D.D 456 

A Benevolent and Wonderful Man. John Foster 458 

PART IX— FIDELITY TO HOME AND KINDRED. 

King Priam, of Troy, and Achilles. Homer 461 

" He Lies Concealed Here." Anonymous 465 

Rizpah. William Cullen Bryant 466 

Veturia and Volumnia. Great Sieges of History 468 

Penelope, the Faithful Wife. " Life of Man." 470 

A Good Son. Thomas Campbell. 474 

The Escape of Grotius. E. Paxton Hood, D. D 477 

" I am Joseph ; Doth My Father Yet Live ? " Rev. James Blair, D. D 478 

Bravery of General Schuyler's Little Daughter. B.J. Lossing. 481 

David's Lament for Absalom. N. P. Willis 484 

PART X— TRUE FRIENDSHIP. 

Damon and Pythias. Archbishop Fenelon 489 

Pocahontas. Jared Sparks 493 

Allucius and His Bride. Siege of Carthagena 496 

A Faithful and Noble Friendship. From the German 499 

The Power of Music. Anonymous 500 

The Troubadour and Richard Coeur de Lion. Mrs. F. D. Hemans 504 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

The Golden Age of Greece Frontispiece 

Columbus' First Sight of Land.. 28 

Joan of Arc Wounded at Orleans 52 

"Drawing His Sword, Pizarro Traced a Line With It, etc." 64 

Battle of Thermopylae 120 

Perry Leaving the "Lawrence" for the "Niagara." 212 

Luther Burning the Pope's Bull 233 

A Noble Queen 334 

Rizpah Protecting The Bodies of Her Sons , 466 



INTRODUCTION. 



Any attempt to do good is always worthy of commen- 
dation ; and to impart useful knowledge, to instill sound 
principles, and to inspire virtuous affections, and thus to 
elevate and ennoble the character of man, must ever be 
regarded among the most worthy and honorable efforts of 
which we are capable. Different methods have been pursued, 
and various means have been employed to accomplish these 
ends. Some have done great good by wise and judicious 
conversation, some by patient and laborious teaching, and 
others by original productions as writers. But the author of 
this volume has adopted a plan, which, while differing from 
each of these ways, embraces, in a large measure, the ad- 
vantages of them all. 

Concerning the end proposed by this compilation, there can 
be but one opinion. While men differ in their views in regard 
to many political, philosophical and religious tenets, there are 
certain principles of action and a certain class of practical 
virtues, which all approve and all admire ; because, the former 
have ever been the main-spring of all the upward progress 
which mankind have made, and the latter have ever diffused 
the most beneficent influence over the spirit and habits of 
society. Any effort or means, therefore, that serves to present 
these principles and virtues in such a clear and forcible 
manner as to convince the mind and impress the heart with a 
due sense of their importance, cannot well be over-estimated. 
And I know of no means or method better calculated to 
effect this than that presented in this work. 

It is an indisputable fact that .one of the' most effective 

xi 



Xll INTRODUCTION. 

means of expanding and invigorating the mind, awakening 
generous impulses, and forming a strong and noble character, 
is to cultivate early familiarity with great men, great deeds 
and great events — with the brilliant achievements, the disin- 
terested sacrifices and heroic actions of those whose exertions 
were crowned with lasting effects, or whose purity and loftiness 
of purpose have rendered them inspiring and immortal ex- 
amples. Passages from standard works, in which eye witnesses, 
faithful historians, or true poets, have described such scenes 
and actors, address themselves directly and forcibly to the 
mind, especially of the young, and leave impressions thereon 
as vivid and enduring as the conceptions of a master artist 
laid upon the canvass. The effect never dies out; but, 
consciously or unconsciously, will have its influence upon the 
mind and heart through life. 

In the following pages the reader will find a rich and varied 
store of such passages, both in prose and poetry, gathered 
from wide fields of literature, ancient and modern, and which 
have been selected and arranged with rare judgment. Indeed, 
here is garnered no small part of the moral and intellectual 
wealth which has been produced and accumulated by the 
successive generations of the past, embracing a great number 
of the choicest gems which history has preserved for us. 
Among these are narratives of events, delineations of character 
and descriptions of scenes, which are fraught with instruction, 
and cannot be read but with thrilling interest. Here the 
Parent, the Teacher and the Pastor will find some of the most 
nutritious food for the mind that they can lay before those 
whom they seek to instruct, and which they are sure to relish. 
A lesson communicated by a plain statement of truth or duty 
has its value and may do good ; but if that lesson be 
conveyed through the example of a living man, nobly acting 
it out, amid the discouragements, or difficulties, or dangers of 
real life, it will not fail to awaken far deeper interest, and 
produce a far more influential and lasting impression. 

To study the character and contemplate the examples of 



INTRODUCTION. Xlll 

men of sterling integrity, men of true courage, men of living 
and lofty piety, in trying or extraordinary circumstances, 
banishing all thoughts of personal loss or gain, suffering or 
enjoyment, in their devotion to truth, right and duty — this has 
an influence and a power to reproduce a like tone of character 
and nobleness of soul, which no preceptive teaching can be 
invested with. Acquaintance with such exemplars of goodness 
and greatness imparts a sense as well as a knowledge of their 
principles. They furnish the mind with noble images and fill 
the heart with magnanimous impulses. They exalt the whole 
man, and imbue him with respect for all that is great or good, 
elevated or illustrious. And such are the fruits which the 
attentive perusal of this Work is well calculated to produce. 

The subjects, for convenience of reference, are classified 
under ten heads. I. Grand Achievements, in the service of 
Liberty, Science, Philanthropy, Invention, Discovery, etc. 

2. Heroic Sacrifices, for Principle and Virtue, Country and 
Kindred, Friends and Enemies, Sick and Wounded, etc. 

3. Valiant Exploits, to save Cities and Homes, Armies and 
Fleets, Rights and Honor, Life and Property, etc. 4. Knightly 
Virtues, exhibited in defending the Friendless, sparing the 
Vanquished, returning Good for Evil, enduring Calamities, 
Suffering, Martyrdom, etc. 5. Patriotism, as displayed by 
Americans, English, Scotch, Irish, Swiss, Poles, Jews, Greeks, 
Romans, etc. 6. Integrity, superior to bribes and blandish- 
ments, threats and tortures, in Judges, in Philosophers, in 
Christians, in Patriots, in Soldiers, in Peasants, etc. 7. Mag- 
nanimity, toward Friends and Foes, toward the Undeserving 
and Ungrateful, toward Debtors and Opposers, Accusers and 
Persecutors, etc. 8. Devotion to Duty, amid Difficulties and 
Discouragements, Opposition and Violence, the Perils of 
battle and shipwreck, the Presages and Pains of death, etc. 
9. Fidelity to Home and Kindred, displayed by Princes and 
Peasants, Captives and Exiles, Husbands and Wives, Parents 
and Children, etc. 10. Friendship, true and stronger than 
death, among Ancients and Modern, Savage and Civilized, etc. 



XIV INTRODUCTION. 

In this rich and varied collection, we have illustrations of 
all the highest virtues, active and passive, of which human 
nature is capable. Here is a mirror reflecting in clear light 
all that is good, or great, or God-like in man. No person to 
good inclined can look into this mirror and not feel his soul 
inspired to nobler deeds and a more worthy life. And no 
person to evil bent can stand before its reflection and not be 
made to feel the meanness and odiousness of vice in all its 
forms, for 

"A fault doth never with remorse our minds so deeply move, 
As when another's guiltless life our error doth reprove." 

In bringing together, therefore, and presenting to the public, 
this array of bright examples, in men as well as women, in 
the young as well as old, the Compiler of this volume has 
done a good work, and rendered to his country a most 
valuable service. 

H. W. M. 



rave 




FROM MANY 5.G-ES MD NATIONS. 



^T Lie 



ECDrd of Grand Achievements . 



* There is a tide in the affairs of men, 
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune." 

— Shakespeare. 



A RECORD 



OF 



GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS 




"THERE SHALL BE NO ALPS!" 

— Napoleon. 



N the eastern frontier of France there surge 
up from luxuriant meadows and vine-clad 
fields and hillsides the majestic ranges of 
the Alps, piercing the clouds and soaring 
with glittering pinnacles into the region of 
perpetual ice and snow. Vast spurs of the 
mountains extend on each side, opening 
gloomy gorges and frightful defiles, through 
which foaming torrents rush impetuously, walled in by almost 
precipitous cliffs, whose summits, crowned with melancholy 
firs, are inaccessible to the foot of man. 

The principal pass over this enormous ridge was that of the 
Great St. Bernard. The traveler, accompanied by a guide and 
mounted on a mule, slowly and painfully ascended a steep and 
rugged path, now crossing a narrow bridge spanning a fathom- 
less abyss, again creeping along the edge of a precipice, where 
the eagle soared and screamed over the fir-tops in the abyss 
below, and where a perpendicular wall rose to giddy heights 
in the clouds above. The path, at times, was so narrow that 
it seemed that the mountain goat could with difficulty find a 
2 17 



18 GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 

foothold for its slender hoof. A false step, or a slip on the icy- 
rocks, would precipitate the traveler, a mangled corpse, a thou- 
sand feet, upon the fragments of granite in the gulf beneath. 
As higher and higher he climbed these wild and rugged and 
cloud-enveloped paths, borne by the unerring instinct of the 
faithful mule, his steps were often arrested by the roar of the 
avalanche, and he gazed, appalled, upon its resistless rush, as 
rocks and trees, and earth, and snow and ice, swept by him 
with awful and resistless desolation, far down into the dimly- 
discerned torrents which rushed beneath his feet. 

At God's bidding the avalanche fell. No precaution could 
save the traveler who was in its path. He was instantly borne 
to destruction, and buried where no voice but the archangel's 
trump could ever reach his ears. Terrific storms of wind and 
snow often swept through these bleak altitudes, blinding and 
smothering the traveler. Hundreds of bodies, like pillars of 
ice embalmed in snow, are now sepulchred in those drifts, 
there to sleep till the fires of the last conflagration shall have 
consumed their winding-sheets. Having toiled two days 
through such scenes of desolation and peril, the adventurous 
traveler stands upon the summit of the pass, eight thousand 
feet above the level of the sea, two thousand feet higher than 
the crest of Mount Washington, our own mountain Monarch. 
This summit, over which the path winds, consists of a small, 
level plain, surrounded by mountains of snow of still higher 
elevation. 

The scene here presented is inexpressibly gloomy and 
appalling. Nature, in these wild regions, assumes her most 
severe and sombre aspect. As one emerges, from a precipitous 
and craggy ascent, upon this Valley of Desolation, as it is 
emphatically called, the Convent of St. Bernard presents itself 
to view. This cheerless abode, the highest spot of inhabited 
ground in Europe, has been tenanted for more than a thousand 
years by a succession of joyless and self-denying monks, who, 
in that frigid retreat of granite and ice, endeavor to serve their 
Maker by rescuing bewildered travelers from the destruction 



" THERE SHALL BE NO ALPS!" 19 

in which they are ever threatened to be overwhelmed by 
the storms which battle against them. In the middle of this 
ice-bound valley lies a lake, clear, dark and cold, whose depths, 
even in midsummer, reflect the eternal glaciers which soar 
sublimely around. 

The descent to the plains of Italy is even more precipitous 
and dangerous than the ascent from the green pastures of 
France. No vegetation adorns these dismal and storm-swept 
cliffs of granite and of ice. Even the pinion of the eagle fails 
in its rarefied air, and the chamois ventures not to climb its 
steep and slippery crags. No human beings are ever to be 
seen on these bleak summits, except the few shivering trav- 
elers who tarry for an hour to receive the hospitalities of the 
Convent, and the hooded monks, wrapped in thick and coarse 
garments, with their staves and their dogs, groping through 
the storms of sleet and snow. Even the wood which burns 
with frugal faintness on the hearths is borne in painful bur- 
dens up the mountain sides, upon the shoulders of the monks. 

Such was the barrier which Napoleon intended to surmount, 
that he might fall upon the rear of the Austrians, who were 
battering down the walls of Genoa, where Massena was be- 
sieged, and who were thundering, flushed with victory, at the 
very gates of Nice. Over this wild mountain pass, where the 
mule could with difficulty tread, and where no wheel had ever 
rolled, or by any possibility could roll, Napoleon contemplated 
transporting an army of sixty thousand men, with ponderous 
artillery, and tons of cannon-balls and baggage, and all the 
bulky munitions of war. England and Austria laughed the 
idea to scorn. The achievement of such an enterprise was 
apparently impossible. Napoleon, however, was as skillful in 
the arrangement of the minutest details as in the conception 
of the grandest combinations. 

The appointed hour had arrived. On the 7th of May, 1800, 
Napoleon entered his carriage at the Tuileries. At a word 
the whole majestic army was in motion. Like a meteor he 
swept over France. He arrived at the foot of the mountain. 



20 GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 

The troops and all the paraphernalia of war were on the spot 
at the designated hour. Napoleon immediately appointed a 
very careful inspection. Every foot-soldier and every horse- 
man passed before his scrutinizing eye. If a shoe was ragged, 
or a jacket torn, or a musket injured, the defect was immedi- 
ately repaired. His glowing words inspired the troops with 
the ardor that was burning in his bosom. Two skillful engi- 
neers had been sent to explore the path, and to do what could 
be done in the removal of obstructions. They returned with 
an appalling recital of the apparently insurmountable difficul- 
ties in the way. " Is it possible" inquired Napoleon, "to cross 
the path " ? " Perhaps," was the hesitating reply, " it is within 
the limits of possibility T " Forward, then," was the energetic 
response. 

High on those craggy steeps, gleaming through the mists, 
the glittering bands of armed men, like phantoms, appeared. 
The eagle wheeled and screamed beneath their feet. The 
mountain goat, affrighted by the unwonted spectacle, bounded 
away, and paused in bold relief upon the cliff, to gaze at the 
martial array which so suddenly had peopled the solitude. 
When they approached any spot of very especial difficulty the 
trumpets sounded the charge, which re-echoed, with sublime 
reverberations, from pinnacle to pinnacle of rock and ice. 
Animated by these bugle notes, the soldiers strained every 
nerve, as if rushing upon the foe. 

When they arrived at the summit, each soldier found, to his 
surprise and joy, the abundant comforts which Napoleon's 
care had provided. One would have anticipated there a scene 
of terrible confusion. To feed an army of sixty thousand 
hungry men is not a light undertaking. Yet everything was 
so carefully arranged, and the influence of Napoleon so bound- 
less, that not a soldier left the ranks. Each man received his 
slice of bread and cheese, and quaffed his cup of wine, and 
passed on. It was a point of honor for no one to stop. What- 
ever obstructions were in the way were to be, at all hazards, 
surmounted, that the long file, extending nearly twenty miles, 



THE BARONS AND KING JOHN. 21 

might not be thrown into confusion. The descent was more 
perilous than the ascent. But fortune seemed to smile. The 
sky was clear, the weather delightful, and in four days the 
army was reassembled on the plains of Italy. 

Jno.. S. C. Abbott. 



THE BARONS AND KING JOHN. 




HENRY HALLAM. 



N the reign of John, all the rapacious actions 
usual to the Norman kings were not only 
redoubled, but mingled with other outrages 
of tyranny still more intolerable. These, too, 
were to be endured at the hands of a prince 
utterly contemptible for his folly and coward- 
ice. One is surprised at the forbearance 
displayed by the barons, till they took arms, 
at length, in that confederacy which ended in 
establishing the Great Charter of Liberties. As this was the 
first effort toward a legal government, so it is beyond compari- 
son the most important event in our history, except that 
revolution without which its benefits would rapidly have been 
annihilated. The constitution of England has, indeed, no single 
date from which its duration is to be reckoned. The institutions 
of positive law, the far more important changes which time has 
wrought in the order of society during six hundred years sub- 
sequent to the Great Charter, have undoubtedly lessened its 
direct application to our present circumstances. But it is still 
the keynote of English liberty. All that has since been ob- 
tained is little more than as confirmation or commentary; and 
if every subsequent law were to be swept away, there would 
still remain the bold features that distinguish a free from a 
despotic monarchy. It has been lately the fashion to depreciate 
the value of Magna Charta, as if it had sprung from the private 
ambition of a few selfish barons, and redressed only some feudal 



22 GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 

abuses. It is, indeed, of little importance by what motives 
those who obtained it were guided. The real characters of men 
most distinguished in the transactions of that time are not 
easily determined at present. Yet if we bring these ungrateful 
suspicions to the test, they prove destitute of all reasonable 
foundation. An equal distribution of civil rights to all classes 
of freemen forms the peculiar beauty of the Charter. In this 
just solicitude for the people, and in the moderation which 
infringed upon no essential prerogative of the monarchy, we 
may perceive a liberality and patriotism very unlike the sel- 
fishness which is sometimes rashly imputed to those ancient 
barons. And as far as we are guided by historical testimony, 
two great men, the pillars of our Church and State, may be 
considered as entitled, beyond all the rest, to the glory of this 
monument: Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, and 
William, Earl of Pembroke. To their temperate zeal for a 
legal government England was indebted, during that critical 
period, for the two greatest blessings that patriotic statesmen 
could confer; the establishment of civil liberty upon an im- 
movable basis, and the preservation of national independence 
under the ancient line of sovereigns, which rasher men were 
about to exchange for the dominion of France. 

By the Magna Charta of John reliefs were limited to a cer- 
tain sum, according to the rank of the tenant, the waste com- 
mitted by guardians in chivalry restrained, the disparagement 
in matrimony of female wards forbidden, and widows secured 
from compulsory marriage. These regulations, extending to 
the sub-vassals of the crown, redressed the worst grievances 
of every military tenant in England. The franchise of the 
city of London and of all the towns and boroughs was de- 
clared inviolable. The freedom of commerce was guaranteed 
to alien merchants. The Court of Common Pleas, instead of 
following the king's person, was fixed at Westminster. The 
tyranny exercised in the neighborhood of royal forests met 
with some check, which was further enforced by the charter 
of forests, under Henry III. 



THE BARONS AND KING JOHN. 23 

But the essential clauses of Magna Charta are those which 
protect the personal liberty and property of all freemen, by 
giving security from arbitrary imprisonment and arbitrary 
spoliation. " No freeman," says the twenty-ninth chapter of 
Henry Ill's Charter, which I quote in preference to that of John, 
the variations not being very material, " shall be taken or im- 
prisoned, or be disseised of his freehold, or liberties or free 
customs, or be outlawed or exiled, or any otherwise destroyed; 
nor will we pass upon him, nor send upon him, but by lawful 
judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land. We will 
sell to no man, we will not deny or delay to any man, judgment 
or right." It is obvious that these words, interpreted by any 
honest court of law, convey an ample security for the two 
main rights of civil society. From the era, therefore, of King 
John's Charter, it must have been a clear principle of our con- 
stitution, that no man can be detained in prison without trial. 
Whether courts of justice framed the writ of habeas corpus in 
conformity to the spirit of this clause, or found it already in 
their register, it became from that era the right of every sub- 
ject to demand it. That writ, rendered more actively remedial 
by the statute of Charles II, but founded upon the broad basis 
of Magna Charta, is the principal bulwark of English liberty; 
and if ever temporary circumstances, or the doubtful plea of 
political necessity, shall lead men to look on its denial with 
apathy, the most distinguished characteristic of our constitu- 
tion will be effaced. 

As the clause recited above protects the subject from any 
absolute spoliation of his freedom rights, so others restrain the 
excessive amercements, which had an almost equally ruinous 
operation. The magnitude of his offence, by Henry Ill's 
Charter, must be the measure of his fine ; and in every case 
the co7itonement (a word expressive of chattels necessary to 
each man's station — as the arms of a gentleman, the merchan- 
dise of a trader, the plow and wagons of a peasant) was ex- 
empted from seizure. A provision was made in the Charter 
of John, that no aid or escuage should be imposed, except in 



24 



GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 



the three feudal cases of aid, without consent of Parliament. 
And this was extended to aids paid by the city of London. 
But the clause was omitted in the three charters granted by 
Henry III, though Parliament seems to have acted upon it in 
most part of his reign. It had, however, no reference to 
tollages imposed upon towns without their consent. Fourscore 
years were yet to elapse before the great principle of parlia- 
mentary taxation was explicitly and absolutely recognized. 

A law which enacts that justice shall neither be sold, denied 
nor delayed, stamps with infamy that government under which 
it had become necessary. But from the time of the charter, 
according to Madox, the disgraceful perversions of right which 
are upon record in the rolls of the Exchequer become less 
frequent. 

From this era a new soul was infused into the people of 
England. Her liberties, at best long in abeyance, became a 
tangible possession, and those indefinite aspirations for the 
laws of Edward the Confessor were changed into a steady 
regard for the Great Charter. 



TRIUMPHS OF COPERNICUS. 




EDWARD EVERETT. 



OPERNICUS, after harboring in his bosom for 
long, long years that pernicious heresy, the 
solar system, died on the day of the appearance 
of his book from the press. The closing scene 
of his life, with a little help from the imagina- 
tion, would furnish a noble subject for an artist. 
For thirty-five years he has revolved and 
matured in his mind his system of the heavens. A natural 
mildness of disposition, bordering on timidity ; a reluctance 
to encounter controversy, and a dread of persecution, have 
led him to withhold his work from the press, and to make 



TRIUMPHS OF COPERNICUS. 25 

known his system to but a few confidential friends and 
disciples. 

At length he draws near his end; he is seventy-three years 
of age, and he yields his work on "The Revolutions of the 
Heavenly Orbs" to his friends, for publication. The day at 
last has come on which it is to be ushered into the world. It 
is the twenty-fourth of May, 1543. On that day — the effect, 
no doubt, of the intense excitement of his mind operating on 
an exhausted frame — an effusion of blood brings him to the 
gates of the grave. His last hour is come; he lies stretched 
upon the couch from which he will never rise, in his apartment 
in the Canonry at Frauenberg, in East Prussia. The beams 
of the setting sun glance through the Gothic windows of his 
chamber; near his bedside is the armillary sphere with which 
he has contrived to represent his theory of the heavens ; his 
picture, painted by himself, the amusement of his earlier years, 
hangs before him; beneath it his astrolabe and other imperfect 
astronomical instruments, and around him are gathered his 
sorrowing disciples. The door of the apartment opens; the 
eye of the departing sage is turned to see who enters ; it is a 
friend, who brings him the first printed copy of his immortal 
treatise. He knows that in that book he contradicts all that 
had ever been distinctly taught by former philosophers; he 
knows that he has rebelled against the sway of Ptolemy, which 
the scientific world had acknowledged for a thousand years; 
he knows that the popular mind will be shocked by his inno- 
vations ; he knows that the attempt will be made to press even 
religion into the service against him ; but he knows that his 
book is true. 

He is dying, but he leaves a glorious truth as his dying 
bequest to the world. He bids the friend who has brought it 
place himself between the window and his bedside, that the 
sun's rays may fall upon the precious volume, and he may 
behold it once, before his eye grows dim. He looks upon it, 
takes it in his hands, presses it to his breast, and expires. But 
no, he is not wholly gone ! A smile lights up his dying counte- 



26 



GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 



nance; a beam of returning intelligence kindles in his eye; his 
lips move, and the friend who leans over him can hear him 
faintly murmur the beautiful sentiments which the Christian 
lyrist of a later age has so finely expressed in verse : — 

"Ye golden lamps of Heaven, farewell, with all your feeble light! 
Farewell, thou ever-changing moon, pale empress of the night! 
And thou, refulgent orb of day, in brighter flames arrayed, 
My soul, which springs beyond thy sphere, no more demands thy aid ; 
Ye stars are but the shining dust of my divine abode, 
The pavement of those heavenly courts, where I shall reign with God." 



GUSTAVUS VASA TO THE DELECARLIANS. 




HRISTIAN II, King of Denmark, having made 
himself master of Sweden, confined Gustavus at 
Copenhagen; but he, making his escape, con- 
trived to reach the Delecarlian Mountains, 
where he worked in the mines, like a common 
slave. Having seized a favorable opportunity, 
he declared himself to the miners and peasants, 
whom he incited to join his cause. Fortune befriended him, 
and in the year 1527 he gained the throne of Sweden: — 

" Swedes ! countrymen ! behold, at last, 
After a thousand dangers past, 

Your chief, Gustavus, here ! 
Long have I sighed 'mid foreign bands, 
Long have I roamed in foreign lands ; — 
At length, 'mid Swedish hearts and hands, 
I grasp a Swedish spear ! 

"Yet, looking forth, although I see 
None but the fearless and the free, 

Sad thoughts the sight inspires ; 
For where, I think, on Swedish ground, 
Save where these mountains frown around, 
Can that best heritage be found— 

The freedom of our sires ? 



GUSTAVUS VASA TO THE DELECARLIANS. 27 

" Yes, Sweden pines beneath the yoke ; 
The galling chain our fathers broke 

Is round our country now ! 
On perjured craft and ruthless guilt 
His power a tyrant Dane has built, 
And Sweden's crown, all blood-bespilt, 

Rests on a foreign brow. 

" On you, your country turns her eyes, 
On you, on you, for aid relies, 

Scions of noblest stem ! 
The foremost place in rolls of fame, 
By right your fearless fathers claim ; 
Yours is the glory of their name, 
'Tis yours to equal them. 

" As rushing down, when winter reigns, 
Resistless, to the shaking plains, 

The torrent tears its way, 
And all that bars its onward course 
Sweeps to the sea with headlong force, 
So swept your sires the Dane and Norse •. — 

Can ye do less than they ? 

" Rise ! re-assert your ancient pride, 
And down the hills a living tide 

Of fiery valor pour. 
Let but the storm of battle lower, 
Back to his den the foe will cower ; — 
Then, then, shall Freedom's glorious hour 
Strike for our land once more ! 

" What ! silent, motionless ye stand ? 
Gleams not an eye ? Moves not a hand ? 

Think ye to fly your fate ? 
Or, till some better cause be given, 
Wait ye ? Then wait ! till, banished, driven, 
Ye fear to meet the face of Heaven ; — 

Till ye are slaughtered, wait ! 

" But no ! your kindling hearts gainsay 
The thought. Hark ! hear that bloodhound's bay ! 

Yon blazing village see ! Rise, countrymen, 
Awake ! Defy the haughty Dane ! 
Your battle cry be Freedom ! 
We will do or die ! On ! 

Death, or victory ! " — Anonymous. 



28 



GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 
COLUMBUS. 



WASHINGTON IRVING. 



" Steer on, bold sailor; wit may mock thy soul, that sees the land, 
And hopeless, at the helm, may droop the weak and weary hand ; 
Yet ever, ever to the west, for there the coast must lie, 
And dim it dawns, and glimmery dawns, before thy reason's eye; 
Yea, trust the guiding God, and go along the floating graves ; 
Though hid till now, yet now behold the new world o'er the seas ! 
With Genius, Nature stands in solemn union still, 
And ever what the one foretells, the other shall fulfill. 

Frederic Schiller, Bulwer's translation. 




OLUMBUS was a man of great and inventive 
genius; the operations of his mind were ener- 
getic, but irregular, bursting forth at times with 
that irresistible force which characterizes intel- 
lects of such an order. His mind had grasped 
all kinds of knowledge connected with his pur- 
suits ; and though his information may appear 
limited at the present day, and some of his errors palpable, 
it is because that knowledge in his peculiar department of 
science was but scantily developed in his time. His own 
discoveries enlightened the ignorance of that age, guided 
conjecture to certainty, and dispelled numerous errors with 
which he himself had been obliged to struggle. 

His ambition was lofty and noble. He was full of high 
thoughts, and anxious to distinguish himself by great achieve- 
ments. It has been said that a mercenary feeling mingled 
with his views, and that his stipulations with the Spanish Court 
were selfish and avaricious. The charge is inconsiderate and 
unjust. He aimed at dignity and wealth in the same lofty 
spirit in which he sought renown ; but they were to arise from 
the territories he should discover, and be commensurate in 




COLUMBUS' FIRST SIGHT OF LAND. 



COLUMBUS. 29 

importance. No condition could be more just. He asked 
nothing of the sovereigns but a command of the countries he 
hoped to give them, and a share of the profits to support the 
dignity of his command. If there should be no country dis- 
covered, his stipulated vice-royalty would be of no avail ; and 
if no revenues should be produced, his labors and perils 
would produce no gain. If his command and revenues 
ultimately proved magnificent, it was from the magnificence 
of the regions he had attached to the Castilian crown. 
What monarch would not rejoice to gain empire on such 
conditions ! 

His conduct as a discoverer was characterized by the 
grandeur of his views and the magnanimity of his spirit. 
Instead of scouring the newly-found countries, like a grasping 
adventurer eager only for immediate gain, as was too generally 
the case with contemporary discoverers, he sought to ascertain 
their soil and productions, their rivers, and harbors. He was 
desirous of colonizing and cultivating them, of conciliating 
and civilizing the natives; of building cities, introducing 
the useful arts, subjecting everything to the control of law, 
order and religion, and thus of founding regular and pros- 
perous empires. In this glorious plan he was constantly 
defeated by the dissolute rabble which it was his misfortune 
to command, with whom all law was tyranny, and all order 
restraint. 

Columbus was a man of quick sensibility, liable to great 
excitement, to sudden and strong impressions and powerful 
impulses. He was naturally irritable and impetuous, and 
keenly sensible to injury or injustice; yet the quickness of his 
temper was counteracted by the benevolence and generosity of 
his heart. The magnanimity of his nature shone forth through 
all the troubles of his stormy career. Though continually 
outraged in his dignity, and braved in the exercise of his com- 
mand ; though foiled in his plans and endangered in his 
person by the seditions of turbulent and worthless men, and 
that, too, at times when suffering under anxiety of mind and 



30 GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 

anguish of body sufficient to exasperate the most patient, yet 
he restrained his valiant and indignant spirit, and by the 
strong power of his mind brought himself to forbear, and 
reason, and even to supplicate ; nor should we fail to notice 
how free he was from all feeling of revenge; how ready to 
forgive and forget, on the least signs of repentance and atone- 
ment. He has been extolled for his skill in controlling others, 
but far greater praise is due to him for the firmness he dis- 
played in governing himself. 

His natural benignity made him accessible to all kinds of 
pleasurable influences from external objects. In his letters 
and journals, instead of detailing circumstances with the tech- 
nical precision of a mere navigator, he notices the beauties 
of Nature with the enthusiasm of a poet or a painter. As he 
coasts the shores of the New World, the reader participates in 
the enjoyment with which he describes, in his imperfect but 
picturesque Spanish, the varied objects around him; the bland- 
ness of the temperature, the purity of the atmosphere, the 
fragrance of the air, " full of dew and sweetness," the verdure 
of the forests, the magnificence of the trees, the grandeur of 
the mountains, and the limpidity and freshness of the running 
streams. 

He was devoutly pious ; religion mingled with the whole 
course of his thoughts and actions, and shone forth in all his 
most private and unstudied writings. Whenever he made any 
great discovery, he celebrated it by solemn thanks to God. 
The voice of prayer and the melody of praise rose from his 
ships when they first beheld the New World, and his first 
action on landing was to prostrate himself on the earth and 
render up thanksgivings. Every evening the Salve Regina 
and other vesper hymns were chanted by his crew, and masses 
were performed in the beautiful groves that bordered the wild 
shores of this heathen land. 

The religion thus deeply seated in his soul diffused a sober 
dignity and benign composure over his whole demeanor. His 
language was pure and guarded, free from all imprecations, 



COLUMBUS. 31 

oaths, and other irreverent expressions. All his great enter- 
prises were undertaken " in the name of the Holy Trinity," 
and he partook of the holy sacrament previous to embarka- 
tion. He observed the festivals of the Church in the wildest 
situations. The Sabbath was with him a day of sacred rest, 
on which he would never set sail from a port, unless in a case 
of extreme necessity. 

He was decidedly visionary, but a visionary of an un- 
common and successful kind. The manner in which his 
ardent, imaginative and mercurial nature was controlled by a 
powerful judgment, and directed by an acute sagacity, is the 
most extraordinary feature in his character. Thus governed, 
his imagination, instead of exhausting itself in idle flights, lent 
aid to his judgment, and enabled him to form conclusions at 
which common minds could never have arrived, nay, which 
they could not perceive when pointed out. With all the 
visionary fervor of his imagination, its fondest dreams fell 
short of the reality. He died in ignorance of the real 
grandeur of his discovery. Until his last breath he enter- 
tained the idea that he had merely opened a new way to the 
old resorts of opulent commerce, and had discovered some of 
the wild regions of the East. He supposed Hispaniola to be 
the ancient Ophir which had been visited by the ships of 
Solomon, and that Cuba and terra firma were but remote 
parts of Asia. What visions of glory would have broken 
upon' his mind, could he have known that he had indeed dis- 
covered a new continent, equal to the whole of the Old World 
in magnitude, and separated by two vast oceans from all the 
earth hitherto known by civilized man ! And how would his 
magnanimous spirit have been consoled amid the afflictions of 
age and the cares of penury, the neglect of a fickle public and 
the injustice of an ungrateful king, could he have anticipated 
the splendid empires which were to spread over the beautiful 
world he had discovered, and the nations, and tongues, and 
languages which were to fill its lands with his renown, and to 
revere and bless his name to the latest posterity. 




32 GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 

ARMINIUS TO HIS SOLDIERS. 

&& — 

RMINIUS, called Hermann by the Germans, 
prince of the Cherusci, a German tribe, was the 
liberator of Germany. He was born about 16 
B. C., and in his youth became a Roman citizen 
of the equestrian order, and served on the 
Danube as leader of an auxiliary body of the 
Cherusci. On his return, finding his country 
smarting under the oppression of the Roman 
commander, Varus, he organized an extensive conspiracy. 
The news having reached Rome, Varus was ordered to march 
against him, in October, A. D. 9. 

Arminius at first waged a sort of guerrilla warfare, but very 
soon closed in on the Romans, and in a terrible three days' 
fight utterly cut them to pieces, Varus eventually taking his 
own life. This destruction of the Roman legions filled Rome 
with grief and shame, and for several days Augustus would 
only utter the words, "Varus, give me back my legions!" 

In the year 1 5 A. D. the Romans sent another powerful army, 
of over 80,000 men, under Germanicus, against him, which, 
by a feigned retreat, he drew into a narrow pass, and then 
turned on them with such terrible fury that they with difficulty 
escaped annihilation. 

The next Spring Germanicus again entered Germany, with 
an army of 100,000, and this, too, was finally forced to retreat. 
This was the last time that Roman armies invaded Germany, 
beyond the Rhine, and Arminius is, therefore, justly called the 
Liberator. 

Soldiers and friends ! we soon shall reach the ground 
Where your poor country waits the sacrifice, 
The holiest offering, of her children's blood! 
Here have we come, not for the lust of conquest, 
Not for the booty of the lawless plunderer ; 
No, friends, we come to tell our proud invaders 
That we will use our strength to purchase freedom ! 



MARGUERITE, OF FRANCE. 



33 



Freedom — prime blessing of this fleeting life ! 
Is there a man that hears thy sacred name 
And thrills not to the sound with loftiest hope, 
With proud disdain of tyrants' whips and chains ? 

Much injured friends, your slavish hours are past ! 
Conquest is ours ! not that your German swords 
Have keener edges than the Roman falchions ; 
Not that your shields are stouter, nor your armor 
Impervious to the swift and deadly lance; 
Not that your ranks are thicker than the Roman — 
No, no ; they will outnumber you, my soldiers — 
But that your cause is good ! They are poor slaves 
Who fight for hire and plunder — pampered ruffians, 
Who have no souls for glory. We are Germans, 
Who here are bound, by oaths indissoluble, 
To keep our glorious birthrights or to die ! 
This is a field where beardless boys might fight, 
And, looking on, the angel Liberty 
Might put such mettle in their tender arms 
That veteran chiefs would ill ward off their blows. 

I say no more, my dear and trusty friends ! 
Your glorious rallying-cry has music in it 
To rouse the sleepiest spirit from his trance, 
For Freedom and Germania ! 

Arthur Murphy. 




MARGUERITE, OF FRANCE. 



HE was the wife of Louis IX, of France, 
known in history as Saint Louis. While 
besieged by the Turks in Damietta, Egypt, 
A. D. 1250, during the captivity of the King, 
her husband, she gave birth to a son, whom 
she named Tristan, in commemoration of 
her misfortunes. Information being con- 
r< ^ veyed to her that the knights intrusted with 

the defence of the city had resolved on capitulation, she had 
them summoned to her apartment, and by her heroic words, 
so animated their spirits that they vowed to defend her and 
the Cross to the last extremity. 
3 



34 GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 

The Conquest of Jerusalem, in 1244, by the Kharesmians, 
and the treacherous massacre of its inhabitants, so wrought 
upon King Louis that he resolved to undertake the Seventh 
Crusade, which had been proclaimed at the Council of Lyons, 
A. D. 1245. 

After several years of preparations, he at length set sail for 
Egypt, landed near Damietta, captured the city, and after 
garrisoning it strongly, took up the march toward Cairo. 
Meanwhile, the Turks rallied in great numbers, and a bloody 
battle was fought at Mansoora, in which the King's brother 
was killed, and the King himself and his army of thirty thou- 
sand compelled to surrender. The Infidels next turned their 
attention toward recapturing Damietta. The proposal to 
capitulate is attributed, by French historians, to the " Knights 

of Pisa," Italy. Hence the Queen's allusion to 

" those recreant knights from the bands of Italy." 

Mrs. Felicia D. Hemans has fittingly commemorated the 
leading incidents connected with the siege, in the following 
graceful lines : — 

The Moslem spears were gleaming 

Round Damietta's towers, 
Though a Christian banner, from her wall, 

Waved free its lily flowers. 
Aye, proudly did the banner wave, 

As Queen of Earth and Air ; 
But faint hearts throbbed beneath its folds, 

In anguish and despair. 

Deep, deep in Paynim dungeon, 

Their kingly chieftain lay, 
And low on many an Eastern field 

Their knighthood's best array. 
'Twas mournful, when at feasts they met, 

The wine-cup round to send, 
For each that touched it silently 

Then missed a gallant friend ! 

And mournful was their vigil, 

On the beleaguered wall, 
And dark their slumber, dark with dreams 

Of slow defeat and fall. 



MARGUERITE, OF FRANCE. 35 

Yet, a few hearts of chivalry- 
Rose high to breast the storm, 

And one, of all, the loftiest there, 
Thrilled in a woman's form. 

A woman, meekly bending 

O'er the slumber of her child, 
With her soft, sad eyes of weeping love, 

As the Virgin Mother's mild. 
O ! roughly cradled was thy babe, 

'Midst the clash of spear and lance, 
And a strange, wild bower, was thine, young queen, 

Fair Marguerite, of France ! 

A dark and vaulted chamber, 

Like a scene for wizard spell, 
Deep in the Saracenic gloom 

Of the warrior citadel ; 
And there, 'midst arms, the couch was spread, 

And with banners curtained o'er, 
For the daughter of the minstrel-land, 

The gay Provencal shore ! 

For the bright Queen of St. Louis, 

The Star of court and hall ! 
But the deep strength of the gentle heart 

Wakes to the trumpet's call ! 
Her lord was in the Paynim's hold, 

His soul with grief oppressed, 
Yet, calmly lay the Desolate, 

With her young babe on her breast ! 

There were voices in the city, 

Voices of wrath and fear — 
" The walls grow weak, the strife is vain, 

We will not perish here ! 
Yield ! yield ! and let the Crescent gleam 

O'er tower and bastion high ! 
Our distant homes are beautiful ; 

We stay not here to die ! " 

They bore those fearful tidings 

To the sad Queen where she lay ; 
They told a tale of wavering hearts, 

Of treason and dismay : 



36 GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 

The blood rushed through her pearly cheek, 
The sparkle to her eye — 
" Now call me hither those recreant knights 
From the bands of Italy ! " 

Then, through the vaulted chambers 

Stern iron footsteps rang ; 
And heavily the sounding floor 

Gave back the sabres' clang. 
They stood around her — steel-clad men, 

Moulded for storm and fight, 
But they quailed before the loftier soul 

In that pale aspect bright. 

Yes, as before the falcon shrinks 

The bird of meaner wing, 
So shrank they from th' imperial glance 

Of her — that fragile thing ! 
And her flute-like voice rose clear and high, 

Through the din of arms around, 
Sweet, and yet stirring to the soul, 

As a silver clarion's sound. 

'* The honor of the Lily 

Is in your hands to keep, 
And the Banner of the Cross for Him 

Who died on Calvary's steep ; 
And the city which, for Christian prayer, 

Hath heard the holy bell — 
And is it these your hearts would yield 

To the godless Infidel ? 

" Then bring me here a breastplate 

And a helm, before ye fly, 
And I will gird my woman's form, 

And on the ramparts die ! 
And the boy, whom I have borne for woe, 

But never for disgrace, 
Shall go within mine arms to death 

Meet for his royal race. 

" Look on him, as he slumbers 
In the shadow of the lance ! 
Then go, and with the Cross forsake 
The princely babe of France ! 



QUEEN ARCHIDAMIA. 



37 



But tell your homes ye left one heart 

To perish undefiled ; 
A woman, and a Queen, to guard 

Her honor and her child ! " 

Before her words they thrilled like leaves 

When winds are in the wood ; 
And a deepening murmur told of men 

Roused to a loftier mood. 
And her babe awoke to flashing swords, 

Unsheathed, in many a hand, 
As they gathered round the helpless one, 

Again a noble band ! 

1 We are thy warriors, lady ! 

True to the Cross and thee ! 
The spirit of thy kindling word 

On every sword shall be ! 
Rest, with thy fair child on thy breast ; 

Rest — we will guard thee well ; 
St. Denis for the Lily-flower, 

And the Christian citadel." 



QUEEN ARCHIDAMIA. 




N the year 279 B. C, Cleonymus, of the blood 
royal of Sparta, who had been excluded from 
the throne by.the Spartan people to give place 
to Areus, invited the powerful King Pyrrhus 
of Epirus to aid him in recovering his pos- 
sessions. Pyrrhus marched to Sparta, and 
supposing that he should not meet with any 
resistance, ordered his tents to be pitched, 
and sat quietly down before the city. Night 
coming on, the Spartans, in consternation, met in council, 
and resolved to send their women to Crete, for safety. 
Thereupon the women assembled and remonstrated against 
it; and the Queen Archidamia, being appointed to speak 
for the rest, went into the council hall, with a sword in her 
hand, and boldly upbraiding the men, told them they did 



38 GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 

their wives great wrong if they thought them so faint- 
hearted as to live after Sparta was destroyed. The women then 
rushed to the defences of the city, and spent the night aiding 
the men in digging trenches; and when Pyrrhus attacked 
on the morrow, he was so severely repulsed that he soon 
abandoned the siege and retired from Laconia. The heroism 
and patriotic spirit of the Spartan women is fittingly depicted 
in the following verses : — 

The chiefs met in the council hall ; 

Their words were sad and few ; 
They were ready to fight, and ready to fall 

As the sons of heroes do. 

And moored in the harbor of Gytheum lay 

The last of the Spartan fleet 
That should bear the Spartan women away 

To the sunny shores of Crete. 

Their hearts went back to the days of old ; 

They thought of the world-wide shock 
When the Persian hosts like an ocean rolled 

To the foot of the Grecian rock ; 

And they turned their faces, eager and pale, 

To the rising roar in the street, 
As if the clank of the Spartan mail 

Were the tramp of the conqueror's feet. 

It was Archidamia, the Spartan queen, 

Brave as her father's steel ; 
She stood like the silence that comes between 

The flash and the thunder-peal. 

She looked in the eyes of the startled crowd ; 

Calmly she gazed around ; 
Her voice was neither low nor loud, 

But it rang like her sword on the ground. 

" Spartans ! " she said — and her woman's face 

Flushed out both pride and shame — 
" I ask, by the memory of your race, 

Are ye worthy of the name ? 



QUEEN ARCHIDAMIA. 39 

" Ye have bidden us seek new hearths and graves, 
Beyond the reach of the foe ; 
And now, by the dash of the blue sea waves, 
We swear that we will not go ! 

" Is the name of Pyrrhus to blanch your cheeks ? 
Shall he burn, and kill, and destroy ? 
Are ye not sons of the deathless Greeks 
Who fired the gates of Troy ? 

" What though his feet have scathless stood 
In the rush of the Punic foam ? 
Though his sword be red to its hilt with the blood 
That has beat at the heart of Rome ? 

" Brothers and sons ! we have reared you men ; 
Our walls are the ocean swell ; 
Our winds blew keen down the rocky glen, 
Where the staunch Three Hundred fell. 

" Our hearts are drenched in the wild sea flow, 
In the light of the hills and the sky ; 
And the Spartan women, if need be so, 
Will teach the men to die. 

"We are brave men's mothers, and brave men's wives; 
We are ready to do and dare ; 
We are ready to man your walls with our lives, 
And string your bows with our hair. 

" Let the young and the brave lie down to-night, 
And dream of the brave old dead, 
Their broad shields bright for to-morrow's fight, 
Their swords beneath their head. 

" Our breasts are better than bolts and bars ; 
We neither wail nor weep ; 
We will light our torches at the stars, 
And work while our warriors sleep. 

"We hold not the iron in our blood 
Viler than strangers' gold ; 
The memory of our motherhood 
Is not to be bought and sold. 



40 



GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 



' Shame to the traitor's heart that springs 

To the faint, soft arms of peace, 
If the Roman eagle shook his wings 
At the very gates of Greece ! 

' Ask not the mothers who gave you birth 

,To bid you turn and flee ; 
When Sparta is trampled from the earth 
Her women can die and be free." 



THE HEBREW RACE. 



Anonymous. 



BENJAMIN D ISRAELI. 




IIP: = ill AVORED by nature and by nature's God, 
we produced the lyre of David ; we gave 
you Isaiah and Ezekiel ; they are our 
Olynthians, our Phillippics. Favored by 
nature, we still remain ; but in exact pro- 
portion as we have been favored by nature 
we have been persecuted by man. After 
a thousand struggles — after acts of heroic 
courage that Rome has never equaled — deeds of divine 
patriotism that Athens, and. Sparta, and Carthage have never 
excelled — we have endured fifteen hundred years of super- 
natural slavery, during which every device that can degrade 
or destroy man has been the destiny that we have sustained 
and baffled. The Hebrew child has entered adolescence only 
to learn that he was the Pariah of that ungrateful Europe 
that owes to him the best part of its laws, a fine portion of 
its literature, all its religion. 

Great poets require a public ; we have been content with 
the immortal melodies that we sung more than two thousand 
years ago by the waters of Babylon and wept. They record 
our triumphs; they solace our affliction. 



WILLIAM THE SILENT AND PHILIP II. 



41 



Great orators are the creatures of popular assemblies ; we 
were permitted only by stealth to meet even in our temples. 
And as for great writers the catalogue is not blank. 

What are all the school men, Aquinas himself, to Miamoni- 
des ? And as for modern philosophy, all springs from Spinoza ! 

But the passionate and creative genius that is the nearest 
link to divinity, and which no human tyranny can destroy, 
though it can divert it ; that should have stirred the hearts of 
nations by its inspired sympathy, or governed senates by its 
burning eloquence, has found a medium for its expression, to 
which, in spite of your prejudices and your evil passions, you 
have been obliged to bow. The ear, the voice, the fancy 
teeming with combination ; the imagination, fervent with pic- 
ture and emotion, that came from Caucasus, and which we 
have preserved unpolluted, have endowed us with almost the 
exclusive privilege of music; that science of harmonious 
sounds which the ancients recognized as most divine, and 
deified in the person of their most beautiful creation. 



WILLIAM THE SILENT AND PHILIP II. 



EDMONDO DE AMICIS. 




N one side is Philip II, on the other William 
of Orange. Philip, shut up in the gloomy 
solitudes of the Escorial, lord of an empire 
that embraced all Spain, the North and 
South of Italy, Belgium and Holland; in 
Africa, Oran, Tunis, the Cape de Verde and 
Canary Islands ; in Asia the Philippine 
Islands ; in America the Antilles ; Mexico, 
Peru ; married to the Queen of England ; Nephew of the 
Emperor of Germany, .who obeyed him almost as a vassal ; 
Sovereign, it may be said, of Europe, since his nearer neigh- 
bors are all weakened by political and religious dissensions ; 



42 GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 

having under his hand the best soldiers in Europe, the greatest 
captains of the times, the gold of America, the industry of 
Flanders, the science of Italy, an army of informers chosen 
from all nations, fanatically devoted to himself, the blind 
instruments of his will ; the most astute, the most mysterious 
of the princes of his time ; having on his side everything that 
enchains, corrupts, terrifies, and moves the world— arms, 
riches, glory, genius, religion. Before this formidable being, 
around whom all creatures prostrate themselves, rises William 
the Silent. 

This man, without a kingdom and without an army, is more 
powerful than he. Like Philip, he has been a disciple of 
Charles V, and has learned the art of founding thrones, and 
the art of overturning them as well. Like Philip, he is astute 
and impenetrable ; but he sees more clearly, with the eyes of 
his intellect, into the future. He possesses, as does his enemy, 
the faculty of reading the souls of men ; but he has also what 
his enemy has not, the power of gaining their hearts. He, has 
a good cause to sustain; but he knows how to make use of all 
the arts by which bad ones are supported. Philip, who spies 
out and reads all men, is himself spied out and read by him. 
The designs of the great king are discovered and circumvented 
before they are put in action ; mysterious hands search his 
caskets and his pockets, and mysterious eyes read his secret 
papers ; William in Holland reads the thoughts of Philip in 
the Escorial ; foresees, unravels, overturns all his plots ; mines 
the earth under his feet ; provokes, and flies before him, but 
returns again perpetually, like a phantom that he sees but 
cannot clutch, or clutching cannot destroy. And when at last 
he dies, victory remains with him dead, and defeat with his 
living enemy. Holland is without her head, but the Spanish 
monarchy is shaken to its fall, and never will recover. 

In this prodigious struggle, in which the figure of the king 
becomes smaller and smaller until it finally disappears, that of 
the Prince of Orange grows and grows, until it becomes the 
most glorious figure of the century. 



WILLIAM THE SILENT AND PHILIP II 43 

On that day when, hostage with the King of France, he 
discovered the design of Philip to establish the Inquisition in 
the Low Countries, he consecrated himself to the defence of 
the liberties of his country, and never in his life did he hesitate 
for one moment, in the path he had chosen. The advantages 
of noble birth, a royal fortune, the peaceful and splendid exist- 
ence that he loved by nature and habit, he sacrificed all for his 
country; proscribed and reduced to poverty, he constantly 
rejected the offers of pardon and favor that were made to him 
under a thousand forms and a thousand ways, by the enemy 
who hated him and feared him. ■ Surrounded by assassins, the 
mark for the most atrocious calumnies, accused even of 
cowardice before the enemy, and of the murder of the wife 
whom he adored ; looked upon sometimes with suspicion by 
the very people whom he was defending ; he bore all with 
calmness and with silence. He went about his chosen work, 
confronting infinite peril with tranquil courage. Never did he 
flatter or bend before the people, never was he blinded by 
their passion ; he was their guide, their chief, their leader 
always ; he was the mind, the conscience, and the arm of the 
revolution ; the beacon-fire whence irradiated the heat by 
which his country lived. 

Great in audacity as in prudence, he preserved his integrity 
in the time of perjury and perfidy ; calm in the midst of 
violence, he kept his hands immaculate when all the courts in 
Europe were stained with blood. With an army gathered up 
here and there, with allies weak and doubtful, harassed by the 
internal discords of Lutheran and Calvinist, noble and burgher, 
magistrate and people, with no great captains under him, he 
had to struggle against the municipal spirit of the provinces 
that scoffed at his authority and slipped from under his hand, 
and he triumphed in a cause that seemed above human con- 
trol ; he tired out the Duke of Alva, he tired out Requescens, 
he tired out Don John of Austria, he tired out Alexander 
Farnese ; he brought to nought the plots of foreign princes 
who wished to succor his country in order to subjugate it; he 



44 



GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 



conquered sympathy and aid from every part of Europe ; and 
completing one of the most splendid revolutions in history, 
founded a free state in spite of an empire that was the terror 
of the universe. 

This man, so tremendous and grand a figure before the 
world, was also a loving husband and father, a kind friend and 
affable companion, fond of gayety and festivals, a magnificent 
and polished host. He was accomplished, knowing, besides 
the Flemish tongue, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Latin, 
and could discourse learnedly of most things. Although sur- 
named William the Silent, he was one of the most eloquent 
men of his day. He was simple in his manners — plain in his 
dress ; loved, and was beloved by the people. 

He was indeed the father, rather than the son of his country. 
The sentiments of admiration and gratitude that still live for him 
in the hearts of the Hollanders have all the intimate and tender 
character of filial affection ; his venerated name may still be 
heard in their mouths ; his greatness, despoiled of every vail or 
ornament, remains entire, clear, firm and solid, like his work. 



THE APOSTLE OF THE CRUSADES. 




,ETER, the Hermit, the first apostle of the Cru- 
sades, was born of good family, in the diocese 
of Amiens, France, about the middle of the 
eleventh century, and died in the Monastery 
of Huy in 1115. 

After trying several pursuits, he became a 
hermit, and about 1093 undertook a pil- 
^5~ grimage to Jerusalem, where the oppressions 

he witnessed and experienced determined him to arouse the 
people of Christendom to undertake a war for the liberation 
of the holy sepulchre. The first host of crusaders was led by 
Peter himself. Though unsuccessful as a military leader, he 



A VALIANT SWISS. 



45 



nevertheless had the satisfaction of seeing the conquest of 
Jerusalem by a succeeding crusade, under the command of the 
valiant Godfrey de Bouillon, who accorded to him the honor of 
preaching a sermon to the Crusaders on the Mount of Olives. 
His appearance at the Council of Clermont, his fiery zeal and 
impetuosity, and the effects of his stirring appeals, are well set 
forth in the following sonnet : — 

Amid the throng the Hermit stood ; so wan, 
Careworn and travel-soiled ; with genius high 
Throned on his brow, shrined in his spiritual eye. 
The Hermit spoke, and through the council ran 
A tremor, not of fear ; as in the van, 
Chafing before embattled chivalry, 
A proud steed listens for the clarion's cry, 
So sprang they to their feet ; and every man, 
Pontiff and prince, prelate and peer, caught up 
Their sword, and kissed the crosiered hilts, and swore, 
As though their lips the sacramental cup 
Had touched, Christ's sepulchre to free ! The shore 
Of Asia heard that sound, in thunder hurled, — 
" Dens id Vnlt" — from Clermont through the world ! 

Sir Aubrey De Vere. 



A VALIANT SWISS. 




N the battle of Sempach, in the fourteenth cen- 
tury, the martyr-patriot, Arnold Winkelried, 
perceiving that there was no other means of 
breaking the heavy-armed lines of the Aus- 
trians than by gathering as many of their 
spears as he could grasp together, opened, by 
this means, a passage for his fellow-combat- 
ants, who, with hammers and with hatchets, 
hewed down the mailed men-at-arms and 
won the victory. The poet, James Montgomery, has vividly 
depicted this novel charge upon the serried lances of the 
enemy, in the following lines :- 

"Make way for liberty ! " he cried — 
Made way for liberty, and died ! 



46 GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 

In arms the Austrian phalanx stood, 

A living wall, a human wood ; 

Impregnable their front appears, 

All horrent with projected spears. 

Opposed to these, a hovering band 

Contended for their fatherland ; 

Peasants, whose new-found strength had broke 

From manly necks the ignoble yoke ; 

Marshaled once more at freedom's call, 

They came to conquer or to fall. 

And now the work of life and death 

Hung on the passing of a breath ; 

The fire of conflict burned within ; 

The battle trembled to begin : 

Yet, while the Austrians held their ground, 

Point for assault was nowhere found ; 

Where'er the impatient Switzers gazed, 

The unbroken line of lances blazed ; 

That line 't were suicide to meet 

And perish at their tyrants' feet. 

How could they rest within their graves, 

To leave their homes the haunts of slaves ? 

Would they not feel their children tread, 

With clanking chains, above their head ? 

It must not be : this day, this hour, 
Annihilates the invader's power ! 
All Switzerland is in the field — 
She will not fly ; she cannot yield ; 
She must not fall ; her better fate 
Here gives her an immortal date. 
Few were the numbers she could boast, 
But every freeman was a host, 
And felt as 't were a secret known 
That one should turn the scale alone, 
While each unto himself was he 
On whose sole arm hung victory. 

It did depend on one, indeed ; 
Behold him — Arnold Winkelried ! 
There sounds not to the trump of Fame 
The echo of a nobler name. 
Unmarked, he stood amid the throng, 
In rumination deep and long, 



DEBORAH. 47 

Till you might see, with sudden grace, 

The very thought come o'er his face, 

And, by the motion of his form, 

Anticipate the bursting storm, 

And, by the uplifting of his brow, 

Tell where the bolt would strike, and how. 

But 't were no sooner thought than done — 

The field was in a moment won ! 
" Make way for liberty ! " he cried, 

Then ran, with arms extended wide, 

As if his dearest friend to clasp ; 

Ten spears he swept within his grasp. 
" Make way for liberty ! " he cried ; 

Their keen points crossed from side to side ; 

He bowed among them like a tree, 

And thus made way for liberty. 

Swift to the breach his comrades fly — 
"Make way for liberty ! " they cry, 
And through the Austrian phalanx dart, 
As rushed the spears through Arnqld's heart; 
While, instantaneous as his fall, 
Rout, ruin, panic seized them all. 
An earthquake could not overthrow 
A city with a surer blow. 

Thus Switzerland again was free — 
Thus death made way for liberty. 



DEBORAH. 



A prophetess and judge of Israel. She holds the first rank 
among the illustrious women mentioned in Scripture. She 
freed the Hebrews from the yoke of the Canaanites, and gov- 
erned them during forty years with as much glory as wisdom. 

The Bible, which has not hidden the failings of the patri- 
archs, which has shown the mistrust of Moses and Aaron, the 
imprudence of Joshua, the incontinence of Sampson, the fall 
of David, and the follies of Solomon, has recorded nothing of 
Deborah but her hymns and prophecies, her victories and her 
laws. Josephus. 



48 



GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 
OLIVER CROMWELL. 



T. B. MACAULAY. 



Cromwell, our chief of men, who through a cloud 
Not of war only, but detraction rude, 
Guided by faith and matchless fortitude, 

To peace and truth thy glorious way hast ploughed, 
And on the neck of crowned Fortune proud 

Hast reared God's trophies, and His work pursued, 
While Darwen's stream, with blood of Scots imbrued, 

And Dunbar field, resound thy praises loud, 

And Worcester's laureate wreath. Yet much remains 
To conquer still ; peace hath her victories 
No less renowned than war. New foes arise, 

Threatening to bind our souls with secular chains : 
Help us to save free conscience from the paw 
Of hireling wolves, whose gospel is their maw. 

John Milton. 




'LIVER Cromwell passed his youth and the 
prime of his manhood in a civil situation. 
He never looked on war till he was more 
than forty years old. He had first to form 
himself and then to form his troops. Out 
of raw levies he created an army, the bravest 
and best disciplined, the most orderly in 
peace, the most terrible in war, that Europe 
had seen. He called this body into existence. He led it to 
conquest. He never fought a battle without gaining a victory. 
He never gained a victory without annihilating the force opposed 
to him. Yet his triumphs were not the highest glory of his 
military system. The respect which his troops paid to property, 
their attachment to the laws and religion of their country, their 
submission to the civil power, their temperance, their intelli- 
gence, their industry, are without parallel. It was after the 
Restoration that the spirit which their great leader had infused 
into them was most signally displayed. At the command 



OLIVER CROMWELL. 49 

of the established government, a government which had no 
means of enforcing obedience, fifty thousand soldiers, whose 
backs no enemy had ever seen, either in domestic or Conti- 
nental war, laid down their arms, and retired into the mass of 
the people ; thenceforward to be distinguished only by superior 
diligence, sobriety, and regularity in the pursuits of peace, from 
the other members of the community which they had saved. 

Cromwell was emphatically a man. He possessed, in an 
eminent degree, that masculine and full-grown robustness of 
mind, that equally-diffused intellectual health, which, if our 
national partiality does not mislead us, has peculiarly charac- 
terized the great men of England. Never was any ruler so 
conspicuously born for sovereignty. The cup which has in- 
toxicated almost all others sobered him. His spirit, restless 
from its buoyancy in a lower sphere, reposed in majestic 
placidity as soon as it had reached the level congenial to it. 
He had nothing in common with that large class of men who 
distinguish themselves in lower posts, and whose incapacity 
becomes obvious as soon as the public voice summons them 
to take the lead. Rapidly as his fortunes grew, his mind 
expanded more rapidly still. Insignificant as a private citizen 
he was a great general ; he was a still greater prince. The 
manner of Napoleon was a theatrical compound, in which the 
coarseness of a revolutionary guard-room was blended with 
the ceremony of the old Court of Versailles. Cromwell, by the 
confession even of his enemies, exhibited in his demeanor 
the simple and natural nobleness of a man neither ashamed 
of his origin nor vain of his elevation ; of a man who had 
found his proper place in society, and who felt secure that he 
was competent to fill it. Easy, even to familiarity, where his 
dignity was concerned, he was punctilious only for his country. 
His own character he left to take care of itself; he left it to 
be defended by his victories in war and his reforms in peace. 
But he was a jealous and implacable guardian of the public 
honor. He suffered a crazy Quaker to insult him in the midst 
of Whitehall, and revenged himself only by liberating him and 
4 



50 GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 

giving him a dinner. But he was prepared to risk the chances 
of war to avenge the blood of a private Englishman. 

No sovereign ever carried to the throne so large a portion 
of the best qualities of the middling orders, so strong a sym- 
pathy with the feelings and interests of his people. He was 
sometimes driven to arbitrary measures ; but he had a high, 
stout, honest, English heart. Hence it was that he loved to 
surround his throne with such men as Hale and Blake. Hence 
it was that he allowed so large a share of political liberty to 
his subjects, and that, even when an opposition, dangerous to 
his power and to his person, almost compelled him to govern 
by the sword, he was still anxious to leave a germ from which, 
at a more favorable season, free institutions might spring. We 
firmly believe that, if his first Parliament had not commenced 
its debates by disputing his title, his government would have 
been as mild at home as it was energetic and able abroad. He 
was a soldier — he had risen by war. Had his ambition been 
of an impure or selfish kind, it would have been easy for him 
to plunge his country into Continental hostilities on a large 
scale, and to dazzle the restless factions which he ruled, by the 
splendor of his victories. Some of his enemies have sneeringly 
remarked that, in the successes obtained under his administra- 
tion he had no personal share ; as if a man who had raised 
himself from obscurity to empire, solely by his military talents, 
could have any unworthy reason for shrinking from military 
enterprise. This reproach is his highest glory. In the 
success of the English navy he could have no selfish interests. 
Its triumphs added nothing to his fame ; its increase added 
nothing to his means of overawing his enemies ; its great 
leader was not his friend. Yet he took a' peculiar pleasure in 
encouraging that noble service, which, of all the instruments 
employed by an English government, is the most impotent for 
mischief, and the most powerful for good. His administration 
was glorious, but with no vulgar glory. It was not one of 
those periods of overstrained and convulsive exertion which 
necessarily produce debility and languor. Its energy was 



AN INSPIRED HEROINE. 51 

natural, healthful, temperate. He placed England at the head 
of the Protestant interest, and in the first ranks of Christian 
powers. He taught every nation to value her friendship and 
to dread her enmity. But he did not squander her resources 
in a vain attempt to invest her with that supremacy which no 
power, in the modern system of Europe, can safely affect or 
can long retain. 

This noble and sober wisdom had its reward. If he did not 
carry the banners of the Commonwealth in triumph to distant 
capitals ; if he did not adorn Whitehall with the spoils of the 
Stadthouse and the Louvre ; if he did not portion out Flanders 
and Germany into principalities for his kinsmen and his 
generals; he did not, on the other hand, see his country 
overrun by the armies of nations which his ambition had 
provoked. He did not drag out the last years of his life in 
exile and a prisoner in an unhealthy climate and under 
an ungenerous jailor, raging with the impotent desire of 
vengeance, and brooding over visions of departed glory. He 
went down to his grave in the fullness of power and fame, and 
left to his son an authority which any man of ordinary firmness 
and prudence would have retained. 



AN INSPIRED HEROINE. 



Dauphin ! I am, by birth, a shepherd's daughter ; 

My wit untrained in any kind of art ; 

Heaven and our Lady gracious has it pleased 

To shine on my contemptible estate ! 

Lo! while I waited on my tender lambs, 

And to sun's parching heat displayed my cheeks, 

God's mother deigned to appear to me; 

And, in a vision full of majesty, 

Will'd me to leave my base vocation, 

And free my country from calamity ! 

Her aid she promised, and assured success ; 

In complete glory she revealed herself; 

And, whereas I was black and swart before, 

With those clear rays which she infused on me 

That beauty am I bless'd with, which you see ! 

William Shakespeare. 



52 GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 

The following beautiful soliloquy represents Joan of Arc in 
the act of departing forever from the abode of her infancy to 
take command of the disorganized and dispirited armies of 
France, when a feeling of regret seizes her and she says : — 

Farewell, ye mountains, ye beloved glades ! 
Ye lone and peaceful valleys, fare ye well ! 
Through you Johanna never more may stray ! 
For aye, Johanna bids you now farewell. 
Ye meads which I have watered, and ye trees 
Which I have planted, still in beauty bloom ! 
Farewell, ye grottoes, and ye crystal springs ! . 
Sweet echo, vocal spirit of the vale, 
Who sang' st responsive to my simple strain, 
Johanna goes, and ne'er returns again. 

Ye scenes where all my tranquil joys I knew 
Forever now I leave you far behind ! 
Poor foldless lambs, no shepherd now have you ! 
O'er the wide heath stray henceforth unconfined ; 
For I to danger's field, of crimson hue, 
Am summon'd hence, another flock to find-; 
Such is to me the Spirit's high behest ; 
No earthly, vain ambition fires my breast. 

For who in glory did on Horeb's height 
Descend to Moses in the bush of flame 
And bade him go and stand in Pharaoh's sight; 
Who once to Israel's pious shepherd came, 
And sent him forth, his champion in the fight ; 
Who aye hath loved the lowly shepherd train ; 
He, from those leafy boughs, thus spoke to me : 
" Go forth ! Thou shalt on earth my witness be. 

"Thou in rude armor must thy limbs invest, 
A plate of steel upon thy bosom wear ; 
Vain, earthly love may never stir thy breast, 
Nor passion's sinful glow be kindled there ; 
Ne'er with the bride wreath shall thy locks be dress'd, 
Nor on thy bosom bloom an infant fair ; 
But war's triumphant glory shall be thine ; 
Thy martial fame all women's shall outshine. 

" For when in fight the stoutest hearts despair, 
When direful ruin threatens France, forlorn, 
Then thou aloft mv oriflamme shalt bear, 




JOAN OF ARC WOUNDED AT THE SIEGE OF ORLEANS. 



AN INSPIRED HEROINE. 



53 




And swiftly as the reaper mows the corn 

Thou shalt lay low the haughty conqueror; 

His fortune's wheel thou rapidly shalt turn, 

To Gaul's heroic sons deliv'rance bring, 

Relieve beleaguer'd Rheims, and crown thy king." 

The heavenly Spirit promised me a sign ; 
He sends the helmet, it hath come from Him ; 
Its iron filleth me with strength divine, 
I feel the courage of the cherubim 
As with the rushing of a mighty wind 
It drives me forth to join the battle's din ; 
The clanging trumpets sound, the chargers rear, 
And the loud war-cry thunders in mine ear. 

Frederic Schiller. 



URING the reign of Charles VII, of France, 
the English resolved to besiege the most 
important town in France, next to Paris, 
Orleans, on the river Loire, almost in a 
straight line to the south of Paris. The 
English had gathered together ten thousand 
men, and had begun by taking all the small 
places near Orleans, so that they might send 
no help to the town. Then the English army drew close 
around the town, built forts, and prevented any food from 
going in. The people of Orleans did all they could to defend 
themselves, and for some time they managed to prevent the 
English from doing their city much harm ; but they soon 
began to feel the want of food, and they sent to ask for help 
from the chief men of France. But no help came to them, 
either from the great lords, who were all busy about business 
of their own, or from the king, Charles VII, who was a weak, 
idle man, and did not seem to care, so long as he himself was 
safe and comfortable, whether or not the second city of his 
country fell into the hands of his enemy. 

Help did come to Orleans at last, but in a way in which no 
one could have expected it. In a little village in Lorraine, on 
the east side of France, there lived a peasant girl named Jeanne 



54 GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 

d' Arc. She was brought up like other children, by her parents, 
taking the sheep out to the meadows when she was quite 
young, and when she grew older, sitting at home and sewing 
with her mother, while her brothers and sisters worked in the 
fields. She could neither read nor write, but her mother 
taught her all that she herself knew. Jeanne was fond of 
being alone, and used often to go to an old beech tree near 
the village, where it was supposed that fairies danced by night. 
Here Jeanne would sit, by herself, when she wanted to think 
quietly. As she grew older, she began to hear a great deal of 
the war between England and France, which brought so much 
distress and trouble to the people of France. She knew how 
many hundreds of Frenchmen had lost their houses, their lands, 
their friends, all that they cared about already, and how the war 
was not yet nearly over, but seemed likely to go on, no one could 
tell how much longer. The king, Charles, had some good gen- 
erals who would have fought bravely for him; but he would 
not listen to them, and spent all his time in amusing himself. 

Jeanne thought of all this, till she longed to do something 
to help her countrymen. She began to fancy that she saw 
visions; that is, she thought she saw people and heard voices 
which no one else could see or hear. It seemed at times, 
always when she was alone, that three angels appeared to her 
in a bright light, saying, "Jeanne, go to the help of the King 
of France, and you will win back his kingdom for him." The 
voices also told her to go to the captain of the town near, and 
ask him to send her to the king. 

Jeanne talked about her visions to her relations, and told 
her parents that she wished to go to court to give the king a 
message from heaven and to help him fight his enemies. 
They refused for some time to let her go; but she at last 
found an uncle who took her to the captain of the town near 
at hand, and asked him to send her to the king. The captain 
would not hear of it for some time ; but at last some of the 
chief people of the place saw her, and, having talked with her, 
promised to go with her to the court. 



AN INSPIRED HEROINE. 55 

Charles heard of her, and sent to say he would receive her; 
the people of the town bought her a horse ; the captain gave 
her a sword ; and so she set off, with a few soldiers to guard 
her. When she was presented at the court, the king had 
hidden himself among his courtiers, and put one of them, 
richly dressed, on the throne, to see whether Jeanne would 
know which was the real king. She went straight up to 
Charles, and though at first he said, to try her, that he was not 
the king, she declared that he was, and went on to tell him 
that she was sent by God to save his country from the 
English. At last, he was persuaded to listen to her, and even 
to believe what she said. 

The first thing she wished to do was to go to the help of 
Orleans. The king put her at the head of a body of soldiers, 
and sent them on their way. They marched toward Orleans, 
all the people as they passed through the country coming out 
to look at Jeanne in her shining armor, on her fine horse. 
From this time she always dressed herself like a man, which 
was more convenient for the soldier's life she had to lead. 

Jeanne at this time was only seventeen ; but she had so 
much good sense and power of understanding that the captains 
were glad to have her help and advice, and so were all her friends 
by the time they came to Orleans, where they made their way 
into the town, and were welcomed with delight by the people. 
They all looked upon Jeanne as a saint; and the English, who 
had heard so much of her, were frightened, and thought she 
would be able to bewitch them, or do them harm in some 
strange way. 

The first time that they met her in battle they did not dare 
to resist, but gave way before her. She was afraid of no one ; 
her friends were always made braver themselves by seeing her 
courage in battle, for she went straight on as if nothing could 
hurt her, and both her friends and enemies believed more and 
more that she was a special messenger sent from God to the 
help of France. 

Orleans was saved by her help. The siege had already 



56 GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 

lasted for some time, and the English were tired with the 
efforts they had made. They saw that the people of Orleans 
were less likely to yield now than before. The English 
general was killed one day by a shot from the walls of the 
town, and at last, a week after Jeanne had come into the city, 
the English army left all the forts and towers that they had 
built round Orleans and marched away, leaving the town free. 

Jeanne had one more great wish. The king had never yet 
been solemnly crowned. It was the custom for kings of 
France to be crowned at a place called Rheims, and Jeanne 
wished to take Charles to Rheims and have him crowned king. 
Charles had been amusing himself while Jeanne was at 
Orleans, and made no objection to anything that was pro- 
posed. They all went together to Rheims, meeting the 
English on the way, and defeating them in a great battle. In 
Rheims itself there were no enemies ; the French had only to 
march in, and they were masters. Charles was crowned king, 
with Jeanne standing by his side, with the standard or flag in 
her hand. 

When this was over, Jeanne wished to go back to her old 
home and live again with her parents. She had now been 
away for nearly three months, and she had done the two great 
things which she had wished to do for her country — saving 
Orleans and having the king crowned. But the captains of 
Charles begged her to stay with the army. They found that 
the English feared her, and their own soldiers admired her so 
much that they thought while she was with them they were 
certain to succeed. Jeanne agreed to stay, but from this time 
she was often sad and disturbed, and was sometimes heard to 
say, " I shall not live more than a year." 

The English still held Paris, and Jeanne led an army to try 
to make its way into that city. Here she failed for the first 
time, and she and her men were driven back from the walls. 
The favorites of the king were growing jealous of Jeanne; 
they found that Charles listened more to her than he did to 
them. They began trying to prevent her from winning any 



AN INSPIRED HEROINE. 57 

more glory by her victories, and sometimes even refused to 
send soldiers out with her, or to listen to her advice on ques- 
tions about the war. At last, she one day went with a party 
of French soldiers outside a town in which many of the French 
soldiers were gathered together, and where she had been 
staying. The English, with some of the French who still took 
their part, were outside the walls, and Jeanne and her men 
were surrounded by the enemy. Most of them made their 
way back into the city ; but no one stayed to help Jeanne, who 
had gone on further than the rest. She turned at last ; but, 
when she came to the town, she could not get through the 
gates. Some writers say that they were shut ; others that the 
people pressing in filled them up, so that she could not make 
her way through ; but, whatever the reason, she was kept out, 
and after trying to escape without being noticed was taken 
prisoner by her enemies. 

It was not to an Englishman, but to a subject of the Duke 
of Burgundy, a friend of the English, that she gave herself up ; 
and she was at first kept in a castle belonging to him, but she 
was afterward sold to the English for a large sum of money. 

It shows such ingratitude as one could hardly have thought 
possible in the King of France and his chief lords, that no one 
did anything to save Jeanne d'Arc. The English, as soon as 
she was in their power, brought her up for trial, as if she had 
been a criminal — that is, a person who has done some wrong 
action — instead of a brave woman who had fought for her 
country. A French bishop was her chief judge, and all her 
judges were Frenchmen. She had no one to defend her; 
questions of every kind were asked her about herself, about 
her life, her religion, her visions. The English wished to 
make her confess that she was a witch ; she was thrown into 
prison and treated with great cruelty. It was thought very 
wicked of her to wear men's clothes instead of women's ; and 
her having one day put some on, because the women's clothes 
had been taken out of her prison, was one of the excuses for 
the horrible sentence which her judges passed on her. 



58 



GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 



She was sentenced to be burned alive, and the execution 
took place at Rouen. Crowds of people, both friends and 
enemies, came to see her die, but no one interfered to help her. 
She died before she was twenty-one, and is perhaps the most 
wonderful woman of whom we read in all history. The Eng- 
lish never settled themselves in the country again, and were 
driven out of it altogether before the end of Charles VII's 
reign. French History. 



JOHN HOWARD, THE PRISON REFORMER. 




OHN Howard, the English philanthropist, was 
born at Enfield, September, 1826. In his 
youth he was apprenticed to a grocer in 
London, but upon the death of his father he 
purchased his indentures and traveled on the 
Continent. Returning to England, he occu- 
pied himself with medical and scientific studies 
for some time, and in 1756, after the great 
earthquake in Lisbon, Portugal, he embarked 
for that port, with a view of alleviating the sufferers. On the 
voyage he was taken prisoner by a French privateer and 
carried into Brest, where he witnessed the inhuman treatment 
of prisoners of war. Having procured the exchange of 
himself and his fellow captives, he returned to England and 
settled upon an estate which he had inherited from his father. 
His career of active philanthropy may be said to date from 
this time. He built schools and model cottages for the 
peasantry, the latter the first erected in England for their 
benefit; and Cardington, formerly a wretched and filthy 
village, now attracted attention by its neatness and the health- 
ful and thrifty appearance of its inhabitants. In 1765 he 
again traveled on the continent, and on his return he was 
named for the office of sheriff, and in 1773 he accepted the 



JOHN HO WARD, THE PRISON REFORMER. 59 

office, and visited, in his official capacity, the Bedford jail, in 
which John Bunyan wrote the "Pilgrim's Progress." The 
wretched condition of the prisoners made a deep impression 
upon him; and the confinement of many innocent persons for 
months, and sometimes for years, from inability to pay their 
fees of jail delivery, so shocked him that he proposed to the 
magistrates to pay regular salaries to the jailers, in place of the 
fees collected from the prisoners. The magistrates, unprepared 
for such an innovation, asked for a precedent, and, in his 
fruitless exertions to find one, Howard visited every town in 
England containing a prison. He collected a mass of informa- 
tion concerning prison abuses, which he communicated in a 
report to the House of Commons, who gave him a vote of 
thanks, and, in 1774, passed bills "for the relief of acquitted 
prisoners, in the matter of fees," and "for preserving the 
health of prisoners." At his own expense he caused copies of 
the new laws to be sent to every jailer in the kingdom. The 
prominence thus given to his name secured his election from 
Bedford to the House of Commons ; but his sympathy with 
the American Revolution aroused the ministry to oppose him, 
and a parliamentary scrutiny unseated him. He never after- 
wards participated in political life, but gave his whole time to 
the philanthropic plans in which he had embarked. He re- 
examined the principal penal establishments of England, and 
visited France, Germany and the Low Countries ; then made 
a new tour through England, examining the operation of the 
new jail act, and relieving much distress among poor debtors. 
His report on "The State of the Prisons of England and 
Wales, with preliminary observations, and an Account of some 
Foreign Prisons," bore fruit in the determination of the min- 
istry to make a trial of the discipline of hard labor in one or 
more of the large prisons. A bill drafted by the famous Sir 
William Blackstone was passed, providing for the erection of 
two penitentiaries, and Howard was appointed the first super- 
visor, but in order to avoid a controversy as to the site of the 
buildings, he resigned his office, and between 1781 and 1784 



60 GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 

he traveled through Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Poland, Spain 
and Portugal, and afterwards published an appendix to his 
work. 

His labors for a period of more than ten years had left him 
with impaired pecuniary resources and shattered health; but 
he embarked upon a second series of philanthropic researches 
with a zeal surpassing his physical powers, volunteering to pro- 
cure, for the British government, information relating to quar- 
antine establishments. The French government was incensed 
against him for having published, in 1780, a translation of a 
suppressed account of the interior of the Bastile, and refused 
him a passport. He, therefore, traveled through the country 
in various disguises, and after a series of romantic adventures 
and several narrow escapes from the police, who were con- 
stantly on his track, succeeded in visiting the new lazaretto at 
Marseilles. He proceeded thence to Malta-Zanta, Smyrna and 
Constantinople, fearlessly exposing his person in infected places. 
That he might speak with authority on the subject of Pest- 
Houses, he went to Smyrna, sought out a foul ship, and sailed 
in her for Venice. After a voyage of sixty days, during which 
he assisted the crew in beating off an attack of pirates, he 
arrived at his destination and was subjected to a rigorous 
confinement in the Lazaretto of Venice, under which his health 
suffered severely. He then returned to England, in February, 
1787, after an absence of sixteen months, and published his 
second great work, "An Account of the Principal Lazarettos 
of Europe, with various Papers relating to the Plague, etc.," in 
the preface to which he announced his intention to pursue his 
inquiries in the same direction, observing that his conduct was 
not from rashness or enthusiasm, but a serious conviction of 
duty. In the Summer of 1789 he started on his last Conti- 
nental tour, meaning to pass through Russia to the East, but 
was cut off by camp fever, January 20th, 1790, which he 
contracted from a patient at Kherson, on the Black Sea. He 
expended nearly the whole of his fortune in various benefac- 
tions. The following extract from a eulogium pronounced by 



JOHN HOWARD, THE PRISON REFORMER. 61 

one of England's greatest statesmen, Edmund Burke, is a 
worthy and deserving tribute to his memory: — 

"He has visited all Europe; not to survey the sumptuous- 
ness of palaces, or the stateliness of temples ; not to make 
accurate measurements of the remains of ancient grandeur; 
nor to form a scale of the curiosities of modern art; nor to 
collect medals, or collate manuscripts ; but to dive into the 
depths of dungeons; to plunge into the infection of hospitals; 
to survey the mansions of sorrow and pain ; to take the gauge 
and dimensions of misery, depression and contempt; to re- 
member the forgotten, to attend to the neglected, to visit the 
forsaken, and compare and collate the distress of all men in 
all countries. His plan is original; it is as full of genius as 
of humanity. It was a voyage of discovery; a circum- 
navigation of Charity." 

Howard ! it matters not that far away 
From Albion's peaceful shore thy bones decay ; 
Him it might please, by whose sustaining hand 
Thy steps were led through many a distant land, 
Thy long and last abode should there be found, 
Where many a savage nation prowls around ; 
That virtue from the hallowed spot might rise, 
And, pointing to the finished sacrifice, 
Teach to the roving Tartar's savage clan 
Lessons of love, and higher aims of man. 
The hoary chieftain who thy tale shall hear, 
Pale, on thy grave shall drop his faltering spear ; 
The cold, unpitying Cossack thirst no more 
To bathe his burning falchion deep in gore, 
Relentless to the cry of carnage speed, 
Or urge o'er gasping heaps his panting steed ! 

Nor vain the thought that fairer hence may rise 
New views of life and wider charities. 
Far from the bleak Riphean Mountains, hoar, 
From the cold Don, and Volga's wandering shore, 
From many a shady forest's lengthening tract, 
Succeeding tribes shall come, and o'er the place 
Where sleeps the general friend of human race. 



62 



GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 



Instruct their children what a debt they owe ; 
Speak of the man who trod the paths of woe ; 
Then bid them to their native woods depart, 
With newborn virtues stirring in their heart. 

When o'er the sounding Euxine's stormy tides 
In hostile pomp the Turk's proud navy rides, 
Bent on the frontiers of the Imperial Czar 
To pour the tempest of vindictive war ; 
If onward to those shores they haply steer, 
Where, Howard, thy cold dust reposes near, 
Whilst o'er the wave the silken pennants stream, 
And seen far off the golden crescents gleami, 
Amid the pomp of war, the swelling breast 
Shall feel a still unwonted awe impressed, 
And the relentless Pagan turn aside 
To think — on yonder shore the Christian died. 

William Lisle Bowles. 



"CHOOSE EACH MAN WHAT BEST BECOMES 
A BRAVE CASTILIAN." 



WM. H. PRESCOTT. 




•N the departure of his vessels, Pizarro marched 
into the interior, in the hope of finding the 
pleasant champaign country which had been 
promised him by the natives. But at every 
step the forests seemed to grow denser and 
darker, and the trees towering to a height 
such as he had never seen, even in these 
fruitful regions, where nature works on so 
gigantic a scale. As he advanced, hill continued to rise 
above hill, rolling onward, as it were, by successive waves, 
to join the colossal barrier of the Andes, whose frosty sides, 
far away above the clouds, spread out like a curtain of 
burnished silver, that seemed to connect the heavens with 
the earth. 



PIZARRO'S EXPEDITION. 63 

On crossing those woody eminences, the forlorn adventurers 
would plunge into ravines of frightful depths, where the exha- 
lations of a humid soil steamed up amid the incense of sweet- 
scented flowers, which shone through the deep glooms in every 
conceivable variety of color. Birds, especially of the parrot 
kind, mocked this fantastic variety of nature with tints as bril- 
liant as those of the vegetable world. Monkeys chattered in 
crowds above their heads, and made grimaces like the fiendish 
spirits of these solitudes ; while hideous reptiles, engendered 
in the slimy depths of the pools, gathered round the footsteps 
of the wanderers. 

Here was seen the gigantic boa, coiling his unwieldy folds 
about the trees, so as hardly to be distinguished from their 
trunks, till he was ready to dart upon his prey; and alligators 
lay basking on the borders of the streams, or, gliding under 
the waters, seized their incautious victim before he was aware 
of their approach. 

Many of the Spaniards perished miserably in this way, and 
others were waylaid by the natives, who kept a jealous eye on 
their movements, and availed themselves of every opportunity 
to take them at advantage. Fourteen of Pizarro's men were 
cut off at once in a canoe which had stranded on the bank of 
a stream. 

Famine came, in addition to other troubles, and it was with 
difficulty that they found the means of sustaining life on the 
scanty fare of the forest — occasionally the potato, as it grew 
without cultivation, or the wild cocoanut, or, on the shore, the 
salt and bitter fruit of the mangrove ; though the shore was 
less tolerable than the forest, from the swarms of mosquitoes, 
which compelled the wretched adventurers to bury their bodies 
up to their very faces in the sand. In this extremity of suffer- 
ing, they thought only of return ; and all schemes of avarice 
and ambition — except with Pizarro and a few dauntless 
spirits — were exchanged for the one craving desire to return 
to Panama. 

A ray of hope was enough for the courageous spirit of 



64 GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 

Pizarro. It does not appear that he himself had entertained, 
at any time, thoughts of returning. He prepared to stand the 
fortune of the cast on which he had so desperately ventured. 
He knew, however, that solicitations or remonstrances would 
avail little with the companions of his enterprise; and he 
probably did not care to win over the more timid spirits, who, 
by perpetually looking back, would only be a clog on his 
future movements. He announced his own purpose, however, 
in a laconic but decided manner, characteristic of a man more 
accustomed to act than to talk, and well calculated to make 
an impression on his rough followers. 

Drawing his sword, he traced a line with it on the sand, from 
east to west. Then, turning toward the south, " Friends and 
comrades ! " he said, " on that side are toil, hunger, nakedness, 
the drenching storm, desertion and death ; on this side, ease 
and pleasure. There lies Peru with its riches ; here, Panama 
and its poverty. Choose, each man, what best becomes a 
brave Castilian. For my part, I go to the south." So saying, 
he stepped across the line. He was followed by the brave 
pilot, Ruiz ; next, by Pedro de Candia, a cavalier, born, as his 
name implies, in one of the isles of Greece. Eleven others 
successively crossed the line, thus intimating their willingness 
to abide the fortunes of their leader, for good or for evil. 

There is something striking to the imagination in the spec- 
tacle of these few brave spirits, thus consecrating themselves 
to a daring enterprise, which seemed as far above their strength 
as any recorded in the fabulous annals of knight-errantry. A 
handful of men, without food, without clothing, almost without 
arms, without knowledge of the land to which they were bound, 
without vessel to transport them, were here left on a lonely 
rock in the ocean, with the avowed purpose of carrying on a 
crusade against a powerful empire, staking their lives on its 
success. What is there in the legends of chivalry that sur- 
passes it? This was the crisis of Pizarro's fate. 

There are moments in the lives of men, which, as they are 
seized or neglected, decide their future destiny. Had Pizarro 



PETER THE GREAT. 65 

faltered from his strong purpose, and yielded to the occasion, 
now so temptingly presented, for extricating himself and his 
broken band from their desperate position, his name would 
have been buried with his fortunes, and the conquest of Peru 
would have been left for other and more successful adven- 
turers. But his constancy was equal to the occasion, and his 
conduct here proved him competent to the perilous post he 
had assumed, and inspired others with a confidence in him 
which was the best assurance of success. 



PETER THE GREAT. 



ARCHIBALD ALISON, F.R.S. 




5 ETER the Great was one of the most remark- 
able men who ever appeared on the theatre of 
public affairs. 

He was nothing by halves. For good or 
for evil he was gigantic. Vigor seems to 
have been the great characteristic of his mind; 
but it was often fearfully disfigured by passion, 
and he was not unfrequently misled by the 
example of more advanced States. To elevate Russia to an 
exalted place among nations, and give her the influence which 
her vast extent and physical resources seemed to put within 
her reach, was, throughout life, the great object of his am- 
bition ; and he succeeded in it to an extent which naturally 
acquired for him the unbounded admiration of mankind. His 
overthrow of the Strelitzes, long the Praetorian guards and 
terror of the Czars of Muscovy, was effected with a vigor and 
stained by a cruelty similar to that with which the Sultan 
Mahmoud, a century after, destroyed the Janizaries at Con- 
stantinople. 

The sight of a young and despotic sovereign leaving the 
5 



66 GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 

glittering toys and real enjoyments of royalty to labor in the 
dock -yards of Saardem with his own hands, and instruct his 
subjects in ship-building by first teaching himself, was too 
striking and remarkable not to excite universal attention. And 
when the result of this was seen — when the Czar was found 
introducing among his subjects the military discipline, naval 
architecture, nautical skill, as well as other arts and warlike 
institutions of Europe, and, in consequence, long resisting, and 
at length destroying, the mighty conqueror who had so long 
been the terror of Northern Europe, the astonishment of men 
knew no bounds. 

He was celebrated as at once the Solon and Scipio of 
modern times ; and literary servility, vying with great and 
disinterested admiration, extolled him as one of the greatest 
heroes and benefactors of his species who had ever appeared 
among men. 

But time, the great dispeller of illusions, whose mighty arm 
no individual greatness, how great soever, can long withstand, 
has begun to abate much of this colossal reputation. His 
temper was violent in the extreme ; frequent acts of hideous 
cruelty, and occasional oppression, signalized his reign; he 
was often impelled, by ill-directed zeal for the advancement of 
his people, into measures which, in reality and in the end, 
retarded their improvement. More than any other man, he 
did evil that good might come of it. He impelled his people, 
as he thought, to civilization, though, while launching into the 
stream, hundreds of thousands perished in the waves. 

" Peter the Great," says Mackintosh, " did not civilize 
Russia ; that undertaking was beyond his genius, great as it 
was ; he only gave the Russians the art of civilized war." 

The truth was, he attempted what was altogether impractic- 
able. No one man can at once civilize a nation ; he can only 
put it in the way of civilization. 

To complete the fabric must be the work of continued effort 
and sustained industry during many successive generations. 

That Peter failed in raising his people to a level with the 



PETER THE GREAT. 67 

other nations of Europe in refinement and industry, is no 
reproach to him. It was impossible to do so in less than 
several centuries. The real particular in which he erred was, 
that he departed from the national spirit, that he tore up the 
national institutions, and violated, in numerous instances, the 
strongest national feelings. He clothed his court and capital 
in European dresses ; but men do not put off old feelings with 
the costume of their fathers. 

Peter's civilization extended no further than the surface. He 
succeeded in inducing an extraordinary degree of discipline in 
his army, and the appearance of considerable refinement among 
his courtiers. 

He effected no material ameliorations in the condition of his 
subjects ; and by endeavoring to force them at once up to a 
level with the States of Western Europe, he not only rendered 
his government unpopular with the rural population, but also 
prevented his improvements from penetrating the great body 
of the people. It is easier to remodel an army than change a 
nation; and the celebrated bon-mot of Diderot, that the 
Russians were " rotten before they were ripe " is too happy 
an expression, indicating how much easier it is to introduce the 
vices than the virtues of civilization among an unlettered 
people. To this day, the civilization of Russia has never 
descended below the higher ranks ; and the efforts of the 
really patriotic Czars who have since wielded the Muscovite 
sceptre, Alexander and Nicholas, have been mainly in aban- 
doning the fictitious career into which Peter turned the people, 
and the reviving with the old institutions the true spirit and 
inherent aspirations of the nation. 

The immense, though less obtrusive, success with which 
their efforts have been attended, and the gradual, though still 
slow descent of civilization and improvement through the 
great body of the people, prove the wisdom of the principles 
on which they have proceeded. Possibly Russia is yet 
destined to afford another illustration of the truth of Mon- 
tesquieu's maxim, that no nation ever yet rose to durable 



68 GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 

greatness, but through institutions in harmony with its spirit. 
Yet was Peter's attempt, though in many respects a mistake, 
a great and glorious one ; it was the effort of a rude, but lofty 
and magnanimous mind, which attributes to mankind in 
general that vigor and ambition of which it is itself conscious. 
And without shutting our eyes to his many and serious 
errors, in charity let us hope that the words of Peter, on his 
death-bed, have been realized ! " I trust that, in respect of the 
good I have striven to do my people, God will pardon my 
sins." 



"IT IS FINISHED; THE DIE IS CAST!" 



THOMAS DE QUINCEY. 




T is related of Csesar, that, on the ever memor- 
able night when he had resolved to take the 
first step (and in such a case the first step, as 
regarded the power of retreating, was also 
the final step), which placed him in arms 
against the State, it happened that his head- 
quarters were at some distance from the little 
river Rubicon, which formed the boundary of 
his province. 

With his usual caution, that no news of his motions might 
run before himself, on this night Caesar gave an entertainment 
to his friends, in the midst of which he slipped away unob- 
served, and with a small retinue proceeded through the woods 
to the point of the river at which he designed to cross. The 
night was stormy, and by the violence of the wind all the 
torches of his escort were blown out, so that the whole party 
lost their road, and wandered about through the whole night, 
until the early dawn enabled them to recover their true course. 
The light was still gray and uncertain, as Caesar and his 
retinue rode down upon the banks of the fatal river, to cross 



"IT IS FINISHED; THE DIE IS CAST!" 69 

which, with arms in his hands, since the further bank lay- 
within the territory of the Republic, proclaimed any Roman 
a rebel and a traitor. No man, the firmest or the most obtuse, 
could be otherwise than deeply agitated, when looking down 
upon this little brook, so insignificant in itself, but invested by- 
law with sanctity so awful. The whole course of future 
history, and the fate of every nation, would necessarily be 
determined by the irretrievable act of the next half hour. 

In these moments, and with the spectacle before him, and 
contemplating these immeasurable consequences for the last 
time that could allow him a retreat ; impressed, also, by the 
solemnity and deep tranquillity of the silent dawn, whilst the 
exhaustion of his night wanderings predisposed him to nervous 
irritation, Caesar, we may be sure, was profoundly agitated. So 
prepared, we need not much wonder at what followed. 

Caesar was yet lingering on the hither bank, when suddenly, 
at a point not far distant from himself, an apparition was de- 
scried in. a sitting posture, and holding in its hand what seemed 
a flute. This phantom was of unusual size, and of beauty 
more than human, so far as its lineaments could be traced in 
the early dawn. What is singular, however, in the story is, 
that others saw it as well as Caesar, both pastoral laborers 
(who were present, probably, in the character of guides) and 
some of the sentinels stationed at the pass of the river. These 
men fancied, even, that a strain of music issued from the aerial 
flute, and some, both of the shepherds and the Roman soldiers, 
who were bolder than the rest, advanced toward the figure. 

Amongst this party, it happened that there were a few 
Roman trumpeters. From one of these the phantom, rising 
as they advanced nearer, suddenly caught a trumpet, and 
blowing through it a blast of superhuman strength, plunged 
into the Rubicon, passed to the other bank, and disappeared 
in the dusky light of the dawn. Upon which Caesar exclaimed : 
" It is finished ; the die is cast ! Let us follow whither the 
guiding portent from Heaven, and the malice of our enemy, 
alike summon us to go ! " 



70 



GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 



So saying, he crossed the river with impetuosity, and, in a 
sudden rapture of passionate and vindictive ambition, placed 
himself and his retinue upon the Italian soil, as if the inspira- 
tion from Heaven, in one moment involved himself and his 
followers in treason, raised the standard of revolt, put his foot 
upon the neck of the invincible Republic, which had humbled 
all the kings of the earth, and founded an Empire which was 
to last for a thousand and a half a thousand years. 

In what manner this spectral appearance was managed — 
whether Caesar were its author or its dupe — will remain un- 
known forever ; but, undoubtedly, this was the first time that 
the advanced guard of a victorious army was headed by an 
apparition, and we may conjecture that it will be the last. 



LIBERTY,, PEACE AND JUSTICE. 



HON. J. B. EVERHART. 




WO centuries have passed since Charles the 
Second signed William Penn's patent, and 
named the province, against his protest, 
Pennsylvania. He invested the patentee 
with vice-regal powers, for an annual tribute 
of two beaver skins and one-fifth of the gold 
and silver. 

Upon this grant William Penn founded a 
commonwealth without auguries or oracles, without an army, 
without a hierarchy, without titles and without oaths. Here 
he fostered a religion which has no image or sacrifice, no bap- 
tism or eucharist, no organ, choir or pulpit. Amidst a wilder- 
ness of savages, and in an age of corruption, tyranny and war, 
he established liberty, peace and justice. He introduced new 
methods of administration; 'he stripped the law of cruelty, and 
treaties of deception ; he diminished crimes by reducing pun- 
ishment, and avoided hostilities by honest dealing. He pro- 



LIBER TV, PEA CE AND JUSTICE. 7 1 

moted industry by honoring it, and prevented oppression by 
equality of suffrage. When slavery was universal he strove 
to abolish it by ordinance and example. When ignorance was 
prevalent, he organized education. When the Sabbath was 
ignored, he enjoined its observance. When bigotry was ram- 
pant, he upheld the prerogative of conscience. When liquor 
drinking was debauching the Indians, he sought to restrain its 
traffic. When primogeniture was a cardinal canon of the law, 
he excluded it from the right of descent. When it was com- 
mon to invade the soil of the aborigines he acknowledged 
their ownership and extinguished it by purchase. 

He left a name amongst the lawgivers of nations. Like 
Romulus, he granted easy conditions of sharing the benefits 
of government, to foreigners. Like Solon, he prohibited an 
indiscriminate infliction of penalties, and apportioned them 
according to offences. Like Lycurgus, he provided for the 
education of youth. Like Numa, he believed in peace. Like 
Plato, he believed in progress. Like Moses, he believed in 
God. He builded on a sure foundation. He made divine 
virtue the corner-stone of institutions which we still enjoy. 

How rare was his career! Born amidst all the associa- 
tions of war, the son of a fighting admiral, he became at length 
a votary of non-resistance. Raised amidst licentious and 
luxurious fashions, he adopted the simple habits of an out- 
lawed sect. Accustomed to the rites of the Church he was 
expelled, for non-conformity, from Oxford. Traveling abroad 
he acquired the chief continental tongues, and those unobse- 
quious civilities which he said became a Christian. Studying 
the Calvinistic theology at Saumur, he may have learned there 
the representative system of his colonial polity. Visiting Ire- 
land he gallantly assisted in quelling a mutiny at Carrickfergus. 
Reading law at Lincoln's Inn, he obtained a knowledge of 
the subject which served him well as prisoner and Proprietary. 
Incarcerated, and afterward driven from his father's house for 
acting with the Quakers, he defended his belief in public, 
against Churchmen and Dissenters. He argued, with ultimate 



72 GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 

success, before a Parliamentary committee, against the compul- 
sory requirements of oaths. He journeyed and preached in 
company with George Fox, and shared his hardships. He 
issued from the press edifying volumes on religious privilege. 
He denied the right of the Middlesex magistrates " to prose- 
cute any one in this world about anything belonging to the 
next." Esteemed by princes for his sincerity, he used his favor 
in behalf of the Scotch refugees, the banished Rhinelanders 
of Crevelt, and the fifteen hundred Non-conformists in the 
prisons. He prayed for the release of the bishops held in the 
Tower for refusing to read the declaration of indulgence. He 
begged the lives of some of those condemned by the atrocious 
Jeffreys. He remonstrated against the despotic order to elect 
the king's candidate president of Magdalen College. 

He advocated . the election of Algernon Sidney to Parlia- 
ment, for his liberality and patriotism; he recommended an 
earnest welcome in America to the fleeing Huguenots of 
France ; he appealed to the ruler of Poland to indulge those 
of different faith, and recalled his ancestor's boast that he was 
not a king of consciences ; he impressed his religious views 
on the accomplished Princess Palatine, Elizabeth, and on Peter 
the Great, Czar of Muscovy; he visited the Prince of Orange, 
to induce him to favor toleration. He suggested a universal 
Diet of nations, to prevent war. 

He directed Philadelphia to be laid out with orchards and 
yards around the buildings, so that it might be " a green 
country town, which could never be burned, and would always 
be wholesome." He framed a constitution for the colonists, 
which they could alter or subvert, which allowed all but the 
Governor, both Council and Assembly, to be chosen by every 
one who paid " lot or scot to the government ;" which allowed 
no tax without law, no law without the consent of the people, 
no property restriction on voting, no class monopoly of office, 
no trial without a jury, fines to be moderate, prisons to be 
workhouses, children to be educated to useful trades, and 
worship to be free. 



LIBER T Y, PEA CE AND JUSTICE. 7 3 

He negotiated with the Indians under the elm at Shacka- 
maxon — the place of kings — that treaty of concord "which 
was never sworn to and never broken." He declined a large 
sum of money for the exclusive Indian trade, lest he should 
defile his trust. He refused the duties offered him upon cer- 
tain imports and exports. He released certain quitrents for 
the public good. He spared the assassin whom he disarmed 
in the streets of Paris. He returned a soft answer to Richard 
Baxter. His principles stood the test of trial. He was de- 
ceived by exorbitant charges of his agents until the accumu- 
lated sum placed the whole province under mortgage. He 
was traduced by scheming men, called a Jesuit because he 
asserted the right of the Papist to indulgence; called a courtier 
because his claims for clemency were heeded in the palace ; 
accused of treason to King William because he had been 
grateful to King James; deprived for awhile of his govern- 
ment; despoiled of his lawful income ; reduced to a bare sub- 
sistence ; imprisoned by those he served ; defeated in his suit 
with Lord Baltimore about the boundary line, which, a century 
later, caused the survey of Mason and Dixon's ; subjected to 
domestic affliction and disappointment. Yet, he left a memory 
which the criticism of the most popular historian of the age 
has failed to injure. He left a monument more significant than 
statue or column, pyramid or mausoleum. It is here — this 
vast organization of wealth and privilege — this heritage of 
liberty and law, with its prestige of past renown, and its destiny 
of constantly unfolding grandeur. 

Penn's philosophy, opinions and conduct were all con- 
sistent. What sublimity of purpose, what simplicity of manner, 
what energy and wisdom, what kindness of heart did he ex- 
hibit! Studious, courageous, pious, patient under persecution, 
meek in authority, eloquent in expression, profound in learn- 
ing, broad in thought — preferring duty to ambition, suffering 
to unfaithfulness, reproach to resentment — as a gentleman, 
scholar, preacher and legislator, his character seems unsur- 
passed. 



74 



GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 
SUSANNA WESLEY. 




N COVER your heads in her presence, lor 
she is the gracious mother of us all. The 
millions who bear the Methodist name 
bear her impress. She moulded the man 
who is moulding the nations. Her brain, 
and heart, and will-power were the original 
guiding, conserving and propelling force 
of Methodism. 

In countless homes in many lands her influence is felt at 
this hour, ennobling manhood, making womanhood sweeter, 
and blessing childhood with the instruction and inspiration of 
the wisdom, the faith, the firmness and self-abnegation that 
were exhibited in that parsonage at Epworth, where the 
valiant, unworldly, and unthrifty Samuel Wesley made his 
sermons and wrote his verses, and where she gave the world 
an immortal example of what a woman can do in her home to 
glorify God and bless mankind. With such a wife and mother 
in every Christian home, the militant church would have 
nothing to do but to marshal its forces and lead them at once 
to the conquest of the world. Her family discipline typed the 
methods of the millions whose tread is shaking the earth. 

Her intellect was swift, keen and strong. She saw quicker 
and further than ordinary persons. In the great crises in the 
career of her illustrious son her intuition was ahead of his 
judgment. She pointed him to the paths providentially 
opened. It was her firm yet loving hand that held him steady 
when, bewildered or disheartened, he might have wavered. 
To her the student in college, the perplexed young theologue, 
the anxious penitent, the leader in a movement not foreseen by 
himself, nor devised by any human wisdom, turned for sym- 
pathy, for counsel and for prayer. Her acquaintance with the 
Scriptures enabled her always to give the word in season, 
while her mighty faith kindled and fed the flame that burned 



SUSANNA WESLEY. 75 

in his soul. Her responsive spirit recognized the Divine hand 
in the strange and stirring events of that momentous time. 
She was thoroughly educated, having a knowledge of Greek, 
Latin and French, and being widely read in theology, polemics 
and general literature. Her mind moved on the same plane 
with those of her sons, and the sympathy that flowed to them 
from her motherly heart was intelligent, and therefore helpful 
as well as comforting. 

She was beautiful in person. Physical beauty does not 
compensate for the lack of the higher qualities that ennoble 
and adorn womanhood, but it invests its fortunate possessor 
with an added charm and potency for good. The little touch 
of imperiousness that was in her temper was condoned the 
more readily by all concerned because it was the self-assertion 
of a woman whose strong intellect was reinforced by the 
magical power of a sweet voice and personal beauty. Such 
women — the most divinely-tuned of them, at least — bloom in 
ever-increasing sweetness and loveliness in the atmosphere 
they make around themselves. 

There was a deeper spring of power in her life than either 
her intellect or her beauty. It was her piety. She took an 
hour every morning and every evening for private meditation 
and prayer. She did not find time for this — she was the 
mother of thirteen living children — she took time for it. And 
herein is the secret of the power that raised her above the level 
of her contemporaries, and gave unity, vigor and success to 
her life. The two hours thus spent were taken from the home 
school which she taught, from the domestic duties that waited 
for her ready hands, and from the parochial service expected 
from her. But it was there, in the place of secret prayer, that 
her soul was replenished with the spiritual life that was so 
helpful to other lives ; it was there that she acquired the 
patience, the self-command and the moral power that made 
her a priestess at the home altar and qualified her to rule, 
with wisdom, firmness and love, that sacred kingdom. The 
light kindled within her own soul during those two hours 



76 



GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 



spent daily with God lighted all that were in the house. In 
that quiet chamber at Epworth, kneeling at the feet of God, 
the prayers of John Wesley's mother opened the channel for 
the pentecostal floods that were to flow over the earth in these 
latter days. 

That is the picture — a gentle yet queenly presence, a face 
delicate and classically regular in its features, an eye that had 
the flash of fire and the tenderness of the great motherly heart, 
the noble head gracefully posed, all suffused with the indefinable 
influence that makes a holy woman radiant with unearthly 
beauty — Susanna Wesley, the Mother of Methodism, who 
will live in its heart forever. — Nashville Christian Advocate, 



QUEEN ELIZABETH. 




DAVID HUME. 



HERE are few great personages in history 
who have been more exposed to the cal- 
umny of enemies and the adulation of 
friends than Queen Elizabeth ; and yet 
there is scarcely any whose reputation has 
been more certainly determined by the 
unanimous consent of posterity. The un- 
usual length of her administration, and the 
strong features of her character, were able to overcome all 
prejudices ; and, obliging her detractors to abate much of 
their invectives, and her admirers somewhat of their pane- 
gyrics, have, at last, in spite of political factions, and, what is 
more, of religious animosities, produced a uniform judgment 
with regard to her conduct. 

Few sovereigns of England succeeded to the throne in more 
difficult circumstances ; and none ever conducted the govern- 
ment with such uniform success and felicity. Though un- 
acquainted with the practice of toleration — the true secret for 



Q UEEN E LIZ ABE TH. 77 

managing religious factions — she preserved her people, by her 
superior prudence, from those confusions in which theological 
controversy had involved all the neighboring nations ; and 
though her enemies were the most powerful princes of 
Europe — the most active, the most enterprising, the least 
scrupulous — she was able, by her vigor, to make deep 
impressions on their States. Her own greatness, meanwhile, 
remained unimpaired. 

The wise ministers and brave warriors who flourished under 
her reign, share the praise of her success ; but, instead of 
lessening the applause due to her, they make great addition to 
it. They owed, all of them, their advancement to her choice; 
they were supported by her constancy; and with all their 
abilities they were never able to acquire any undue ascendant 
over her. In her family, in her court, in her kingdom, she 
remained equally mistress ; the force of the tender passions 
was great over her, but the force of her mind was still 
superior; and the combat which her victory visibly cost her 
serves only to display the firmness of her resolution, and the 
loftiness of her ambitious sentiments. 

The fame of this princess, though it has surmounted the 
prejudice both of faction and bigotry, yet lies still exposed to 
another prejudice, which is more durable, because more 
natural, and which, according to the different views in which 
we survey her, is capable either of exalting her beyond 
measure or diminishing the lustre of her character. This 
prejudice is founded on the consideration of her sex. 

When we contemplate her as a woman, we are apt to be 
struck with the highest admiration of her great qualities and 
extensive capacity ; but we are also apt to require some more 
softness of disposition, some greater lenity of temper, some of 
those amiable weaknesses by which her sex is distinguished. 
But the true method of estimating her merit is to lay aside all 
these considerations, and consider ' her merely as a rational 
being, placed in authority, and intrusted with the government 
of mankind. 



78 GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 

EMANCIPATION OF THE SERFS. 




LEXANDER II, the Liberator of the Serfs, son 
of Nicholas, Czar of Russia, was born, April 
29th, 1 818. From the cradle he was the object 
of the most tender love of both his parents. His 
education was exceedingly careful. His judg- 
ment and perception were clear, and he seldom 
showed those outbreaks of passion which had 
always been permanent characteristics of the 
Romanoffs. During his minority he traveled extensively in 
Russia, after which he visited England, Germany and Italy, 
acquainting himself, meanwhile, with the people, the laws, 
customs and court etiquette. 

Early in youth he showed an unusual love of justice and 
forbearance, which it is fair to assume were strengthened by 
his travels and observations in foreign lands, for soon after 
coming to the throne, in 1855, he began to meditate on schemes 
for the amelioration of the condition of the serfs in his own 
dominions, who then virtually lived in abject slavery. 

The great war which the Allied Powers were waging against 
Russia when he ascended the throne, together with various 
projects of reform which he immediately instituted, did not 
afford him an opportunity for carrying out the great scheme of 
his life — that of emancipating the serfs — until March 3d, 1861. 
This latter measure is the crowning act of his life, and very 
justly places him among the great benefactors of the world. 

He met a horrible death, at the hands of the Nihilists, March 
13th, 1 88 1, in his own capital city of St. Petersburg. While 
driving through one of the principal thoroughfares, a dynamite 
bomb was thrown under his carriage, which exploded with 
terrific force, mangling his body in a frightful manner, and 
killing him almost instantly. 

He is accused by many for his severity toward conspirators 
and disaffected persons, but when all his motives are fairly 



EMANCIPATION OF THE SERFS. 79 

construed, we think the universal verdict must be that he 
always had the welfare of his realm at heart. 

Again, sweet bells of the Russias, 

Your voice on the March air fling ! 
Ring, bells, on the Volga and Dwina, 

Ring, bells, on the Caspian, ring ! 
O, Tzar of the North, Alexander, 

Thy justice to those that were least 
Now girds thee with strength of the victor, 

And makes thee the lord of the East ! 

It was midnight on the Finland, 

And, o'er the wastes of snow. 
From the crystal sky of winter 

The lamps of God hung low ; } 
A sea of ice was the Neva, 

In the white light of the stars, 
And it locked its arms in silence 

Round the city of the Tzars. 

The palace was mantled in shadow, 

And, dark, in the star-lit space, 
The monolith rose before it, 

From its battle-trophied base ; 
And the cross that crowned the column 

Seemed reaching to the stars, 
O'er the white streets, wrapped in silence, 

Round the palace of the Tzars. 

The chapel's mullioned windows 

Are flushed with a sullen light ; 
Who comes to the sacred altar 

In the silence of the night ? 
What prince, with a deep heart-burden, 

Approaches the altar's stair, 
To take the wine and the wafer, 

And bow for the help of prayer ? 

'Tis the Tzar, whose word, in the morning, 

Shall make the Russias free, 
From the Neva to the Ural, 

From the Steppe to the Winter Sea ; 
Who speaks, and a thousand steeples 

Ring freedom to every man — 
From the serf on the white Ladoga 

To the fisher of Astrakhan. 



80 GRAND A-CHIE VEMENTS. 

O, faith in Eternal Power ! 

O, faith in Eternal Love ! 
O, faith that looked up to heaven, 

The promise of ages to prove ! 
The cross and the crown gleam above him ; 

He raises his brow from prayer, 
The cross of humanity's martyr 

Or crown of the hero to wear. 

Slept the serf on the Neva and Volga, 

Slept the fisher of Astrakhan, 
Nor dreamed that the bells of the morning 

Would ring in his rights as a man ; 
He saw not night's crystal gates open 

To hosts singing carols on high, 
He knew not a Bethlehem glory 

Would break with the morn in the sky ! 

The morn set its jewels of rubies 

In the snows of the turret and spire, 
And shone the far sea of the Finland, 

A sea of glass mingled with fire ; 
The Old Guard encircled the palace 

With questioning look on each cheek, 
And waited the word that the ukase 

To the zone-girded empire should speak. 

The voice of the Russias has spoken ; 

Each serf in the Russias is free ! 
Ring, bells, on the Neva and Volga, 

Ring, bells, on the Caspian Sea ! 
O, Tzar of the North, Alexander, 

Thy justice to those that were least 
Shall gird thee with strength of the victor, 

Shall make thee the lord of the East. 

Again, sweet bells of the Russias, 

Your voice on the March air fling ! 
Ring, bells, on the Volga and Dwina, 

Ring, bells, on the Caspian, ring ! 
Thy triumphs of peace, Alexander, 

Outshine all thy triumphs of war, 
And thou, at God's altar, wert grander, 

Than throned as the conquering Tzar ! 

Hezekiah Butterworth. 



TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS OF GENIUS. 81 

TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS OF GENIUS. 




HORACE GREELEY. 



LI WHITNEY, a native of Westborough, 
Worcester County, Mass., born December 
8th, 1765, was descended on both sides from 
ancestors of English stock, who dated their 
migration from the old country nearly back 
to the memorable voyage of the Mayflower. 
He early developed a remarkable ingenuity 
and mechanical skill, establishing, when only 
fifteen years of age, the manufacture, by hand, of wrought 
nails, for which there was, in those days of our Revolutionary 
struggle, a demand, at high prices. At nineteen, he resolved 
to obtain a liberal education, but it was not until he had 
reached the mature age of twenty-three that he was enabled to 
enter college. By turns, laboring with his hands and teaching 
school, he obtained the means of prosecuting his studies in 
Yale, which he entered in May, 1789. 

While in college, his natural superiority in mechanism, and 
proclivity to invention were frequently manifested. On one 
occasion, a tutor regretted to his pupils that he could not 
exhibit a desired philosophical experiment, because the appa- 
ratus was out of order, and could only be repaired in Europe. 
Young Whitney thereupon proposed to undertake the repair, 
and made it, to perfect satisfaction. 

Mr. Whitney graduated in the Fall of 1792, and directly 
engaged to proceed to Georgia as a private teacher. On his 
way thither he had as a traveling companion Mrs. Greene, 
widow of the eminent Revolutionary general, Nathaniel 
Greene, who was returning with her children to Savannah, 
after spending the Summer in the North. His health being 
infirm on his arrival at Savannah, Mrs. Greene kindly invited 
him to the hospitalities of her residence until he should become 
6 



82 GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 

fully restored. Short of money, and in a land of strangers, he 
was now coolly informed by his employer that his services 
were not required, he having employed another teacher in his 
stead. Mrs. Greene hereupon urged him to make her house 
his home so long as that should be desirable, and pursue, 
under her roof, the study of the law, which he then contem- 
plated. He gratefully accepted the offer and commenced the 
study accordingly. 

Mrs. Greene happened to be engaged in embroidering on a 
peculiar frame known as a tambour. It was badly constructed, 
so that it injured the fabric while it impeded its production. 
Mr. Whitney eagerly volunteered to make her a better one, 
and did so, on a plan wholly new, to her great delight and that 
of her children. 

A large party of Georgians, from Augusta and the planta- 
tions above, soon after paid Mrs. Greene a visit, several of 
them being officers who had served under her husband in the 
Revolutionary War. Among the topics discussed by them 
around the fireside was the depressed state of agriculture, and 
the impossibility of profitably extending the culture of the 
green-seed cotton, because of the trouble and expense incurred 
in separating the seed from the fibre. These representations 
impelled Mrs. Greene to say : " Gentlemen, apply to my 
young friend, Mr. Whitney, he can make anything." She then 
introduced Mr. Whitney himself, extolling his genius, and 
commending him to their confidence and friendship. In the 
conversation that ensued, he observed that he had never seen 
cotton nor cotton seed in his life. 

Mr. Whitney promised nothing and gave little encourage- 
ment, but went to work. No cotton in the seed being at hand, 
he went to Savannah and searched there among warehouses 
and boats until he found a small parcel. This he carried 
home and secluded with himself in a basement room, where 
he set himself at work to devise and construct the implement 
required. Tools being few and rude, he was constrained to 
make better, drawing his own wire, because none could, at 



TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS OF GENIUS. 83 

that time, be bought in the city of Savannah. Mrs. Greene 
and her next friend, Mr. Miller, whom she soon afterwards 
married, were the only persons beside himself who were 
allowed the entree to his workshop — in fact, the only ones who 
clearly knew what he was about. His mysterious hammering 
and tinkering in that solitary cell were subjects of infinite 
curiosity, marvel and ridicule among the younger members of 
the family. But he did not interfere with their merriment, nor 
allow them to interfere with his enterprises; and before the 
close of the Winter his machine was so nearly perfected that 
its success was no longer doubtful. 

Mrs. Greene, too eager to realize and enjoy her friend's 
triumph, in view of the existing stagnation of Georgia industry, 
invited an assemblage at her house, of leading gentlemen from 
various parts of the State, and on the first day of their meeting, 
conducted them to a temporary building erected for the 
machine, in which they saw, with astonishment and delight, 
that one man, with Whitney's invention, could separate more 
cotton from the seed in a single day than he could without it 
by the labor of months. 

Mr. Miller now proposed a partnership with Mr. Whitney, 
by which he engaged to furnish funds to perfect the invention, 
secure the requisite patents and manufacture the needed 
machines. Mr. Whitney, therefore, proceeded to Connecticut, 
but his just and sanguine hopes were destined to signal and 
bitter disappointment. His invention was too valuable to be 
peacefully enjoyed ; or, rather, it was the seeming and urgent 
interest of too many to rob him of the just reward of his 
achievements. Reports of the nature and value of his inven- 
tion were widely and rapidly circulated, creating intense 
excitement. Multitudes hastened from all quarters to see his 
original machine ; but no patent having yet been secured, it 
was deemed unsafe to gratify their curiosity, so they broke 
open the building by night and carried off the wonderful prize. 
Before he could complete his model and secure his patent, a 
number of imitations had been made and set to work, devi- 



84 GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 

ating in some respects from the original, in the hope of thus 
evading all penalty. 

Miller and Whitney's plan was to construct and retain the 
ownership of all the machines that might be needed, setting 
one up in each cotton-growing neighborhood; but no single 
factory could turn out the gins as fast as wanted. And then 
the manufacture of machines, to be constructed and worked by 
the patentees alone, involved a very large outlay of money, 
which must mainly be obtained by borrowing. Then there 
was sickness, Mr. Whitney having a severe and tedious attack 
in 1794; after which scarlet fever raged in New Haven, dis- 
abling many of his workmen; and soon the lawsuits into 
which they were driven, in defence of their patent, began to 
devour all the money they could make or borrow. In 1795 
Whitney had another attack of sickness, and on his return to 
New Haven, from three weeks of suffering in New York, he 
learned that his manufactory, with all his machines and papers, 
had just been consumed by fire, whereby he found himself 
suddenly reduced to utter bankruptcy. Next came a report 
from England that the British manufacturers condemned and 
rejected the cotton cleaned by his machines, on the ground 
that the staple was greatly injured by the ginning process. And 
now no one would touch the ginned cotton. 

In the depths of their distress and insolvency, Miller wrote 
from Georgia to Whitney, urging him to hasten to London, 
there to counteract the stupid prejudice which had been 
excited against ginned cotton. 

At length, the ridiculous prejudice against cotton cleaned 
by Whitney's gin gradually and slowly gave way, and the 
value of the invention began to be perceived arid acknowledged. 
The company's first suit against infringers now came to trial 
before a Georgia jury, and, in spite of the judge's charge 
directly in the plaintiff's favor, a verdict was given for the de- 
fendants — a verdict from which there was no appeal. Mean- 
while, the South fairly swarmed with pirates on the invention, 
of all kinds and degrees. 



TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS OF GENIUS. 85 

Mr. Miller, the partner of Whitney, died, poor and em- 
barrassed, on the 7th of December, 1803. At the term of the 
United States District Court for Georgia, held at Savannah, in 
December, 1 807, Mr. Whitney obtained a verdict against the 
pirates of his invention ; his patent now being in the last year 
of its existence, Judge Johnson, in entering judgment for the 
plaintiff, said : — 

" With regard to the utility of this discovery, the Court 
would deem it a waste of time to dwell long upon this topic. 
Is there a man who hears us who has not experienced its 
utility ? The whole interior of the Southern States was lan- 
guishing and its inhabitants emigrating for want of some 
object to engage their attention and employ their industry, 
when the invention of this machine at once opened views to 
them which set the whole country in active motion. From 
childhood to age, it has presented to us a lucrative employ- 
ment. Individuals who were depressed with poverty and sunk 
in idleness, have suddenly risen to wealth and respectability. 
Our debts have been paid off. Our capitals have increased, 
and our lands have trebled themselves in value. 

" We cannot express the weight of the obligation which the 
country owes to this invention. The extent cannot now be 
seen. Some faint presentiment may be formed from the reflec- 
tion that cotton is rapidly supplanting wool, flax, silk and even 
furs, in manufactures. Our sister States also participated in 
the benefits of this invention ; for, besides affording the raw 
material for their manufactures, the bulkiness and quantity of 
the article afford a valuable employment for their shipping." 

Mr. Whitney's patent expired in 1808, leaving him a poorer 
man, doubtless, than if he had never undertaken the invention 
of a machine by means of which the annual production of 
cotton in the Southern States has been augmented from some 
five or ten thousand bales in 1793, to over five millions of bales 
in 1859. To say that this invention was worth one thousand 
millions of dollars, to this country is to place a very moderate 
estimate on its value. 



86 GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 

In 1798 Mr. Whitney, despairing of ever achieving a com- 
petency from the proceeds of his cotton gin, engaged in the 
manufacture of firearms in New Haven ; and his rare capacity 
for this or any similar undertaking, joined with his invincible 
perseverance and energy, was finally rewarded with success. 
Able to make any implement or machine he required, or to 
invent a new one when that might be needed, he ultimately 
achieved a competency. 

In September, 1822, he was attacked by a dangerous and 
painful illness, which, with alternations of terrible suffering 
and comparative ease, preyed upon him until January, 8th, 
1826, when he died, not quite sixty years of age. 



NOW I'M A MADE MAN FOR LIFE!" ' 



"Now, I'm a made man for life!" said a boy of sixteen, 
when he received an appointment to work at a pumping- 
engine, with wages at twelve shillings a week. His had been 
a rough, hard-working life. His father was a fireman, who 
earned only twelve shillings a week, out of which there was a 
wife and six children to keep. His home was a poor cottage, 
with a clay floor and unplastered walls. He had never been 
to school ; but as soon as ever he was old enough to do any- 
thing, he had to contribute to the general support. At first, 
he earned two-pence a day for looking after Widow Ainslie's 
cows ; later on, he received two shillings a week for minding 
horses; later on still, six shillings a week as assistant fireman 
to his father ; and, at the age of sixteen, he was " made a man 
for life," as he thought, by becoming a fireman with wages at 
twelve shillings a week. That boy was George Stephenson, 
who became one of the greatest men of his day, and who, as 
" the father of railways," will be held in grateful admiration all 
the world over for his mighty labors in connection with the 
locomotive engine. — Heroes of Britain in Peace and War. 



ALFRED THE GREAT. 
ALFRED THE GREAT. 



87 




CHARLES DICKENS. 



S great and good in peace as he was great and 
good in war, King Alfred never rested from 
his labors to improve his people. He made 
just laws, that they might live more happily 
and freely; he turned away all partial judges, 
that no wrong might be done them; he was 
so careful of their property, and punished 
robbers so severely, that it was a common thing 
to say that under the great King Alfred garlands of golden 
chains and jewels might have hung across the streets, and no 
man would have touched one. 

He founded schools ; he patiently heard cases himself in his 
court of justice. Every day he divided into certain portions, 
and in each portion devoted himself to a certain pursuit. 
That he might divide his time exactly, he had wax torches or 
candles made, which were all of the same size, were notched 
across at regular distances, and were always kept burning. 
Thus, as the candles burned down, he divided the day into 
notches, almost as accurately as we now divide it into hours 
upon the clock. He had the candles put into cases formed 
of wood and white horn ; and these were the first lanterns 
ever made in England. 

All this time he was afflicted with a terrible, unknown dis- 
ease, which caused him violent and frequent pain, that nothing 
could relieve. He bore it as he had borne all the troubles of 
his life, like a brave, good man, until he was fifty-three years 
old ; and then, having reigned thirty years, he died. He 
died in the year nine hundred and one; but, long ago as 
that is, his fame, and the love and gratitude with which his 
subjects regarded him, are freshly remembered to the present 
hour. 



88 



GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS. 
THE TRIUMPH OF GREECE. 




HE final overthrow of the Persian hosts on 
the battle-field of Plataea, B. C. 479, has 
an importance far greater than that of 
the deliverance of the Greeks from im- 
mediate danger. Perhaps no other event 
in ancient history has been so momentous 
in its consequences ; for what would have 
been the condition of Greece had she then 
become a province of the Persian Empire ? The greatness 
which she subsequently attained, and the glory and renown 
with which she has filled the earth, would never have had 
an existence. Little Greece sat at the gates of a continent, 
and denied an entrance to the gorgeous barbarism of Asia. 
She determined that Europe should not be Asiatic; that 
civilization should not sink into the abyss of unmitigated 
despotism. She turned the tide of Persian encroachment 
back across the Hellespont, and Alexander only followed the 
refluent wave .to the Indus. 

***** "The fate 
Of unborn ages hung upon the fray ; 
'Twas at Plataea, in that awful hour 
When Greece united smote the Persian's power. 
For had the Persian triumphed then, the spring 
Of knowledge from that living source had ceased ; 
All would have fallen before the barbarous king — 
Art, Science, Freedom ; the despotic East, 
Setting her mark upon the race subdued, 
Had stamped them in the mould of sensual servitude." 

Robert Southey. 




PART* II 



r±i, 






mic* Sacrifices 



**- TJien on .' then on ! where duty leads , 
My course be onward still." 

— Bishop Heber. 

'Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever; 
Do noble things, not dream, them, all day long ; 
A.nd so make life, death, and the vast forever 
One grand, sweet song." 

— Charles Mingsley. 



PART II. 



HEROIC SACRIFICES 



JOHN MAYNARD. 



UljWAS on Lake Erie's broad expanse, 
One bright midsummer day, 
The gallant steamer, " Ocean Queen," 
\9?o 9-.'<jf?" r ? Swept proudly on her way. 

Bright faces clustered on the deck, 

Or, leaning o'er her side, 
Watched carelessly the feathery foam 
That flecked the rippling tide. 



I 



A seaman sought the captain's side 

A moment, whispered low ; 
The captain's swarthy face grew pale ; 

He hurried down below. 
Alas, too late ! Though quick, and sharp. 

And clear his orders came, 
No human efforts could avail 

To quench th' insidious flame. 

The bad news quickly reached the deck, 

It sped from lip to lip, 
And ghastly faces everywhere 
Looked from the doomed ship. 
" Is there no hope, no chance of life ?" 

A hundred lips implore, 
"But one," the captain made reply, 
" To run the ship on shoro !" 

91 



92 HEROIC SACRIFICES. 

A sailor whose heroic soul 

That hour should yet reveal, 
By name, John Maynard, Eastern-born, 
Stood calmly at the wheel. 
" Head her southeast !" the captain shouts, 

Above the smothered roar — 

" Head her southeast, without delay ! 

Make for the nearest shore !" 

John Maynard watched the nearing flame, 

But still, with steady hand, 
He grasped the wheel, and steadfastly 

He steered the ship to land. 
"John Maynard, can you still hold out?" 

He heard the captain cry. 
A voice from out the stifling smoke 

Faintly responds, " Ay ! Ay !" 

But half a mile ! A hundred hands 

Stretch eagerly to shore. 
But half a mile ! That distance sped, 

Perils shall all be o'er ! 
But half a mile ! Yet stay ! The flames 

No longer slowly creep, 
But gather round the helmsman bold 

With fierce, impetuous sweep. 

"John Maynard," with an anxious voice, 

The captain cries once more, 
" Stand by the wheel five minutes yet, 
And we will reach the shore !" 
Through flame and smoke that dauntless heart 

Responded firmly, still, 
Unawed, though face to face with death, 
" With God's good help, I will !" 

The flames approach with giant strides, 

They scorch his hands and brow ; 
One arm disabled seeks his side ; 

Ah ! he is conquered now ! 
But no ; his teeth are firmly set, 

He crushes down his pain ; 
His knee upon the stanchion pressed, 

He guides the ship again ! 



A STORY OF STRUGGLE AND VICTORY. 



93 



One moment yet, one moment yet ! 

Brave heart, thy task is o'er ! 
The pebbles grate beneath the keel, 

The steamer touches shore ! 
Three hundred grateful voices rise 

In praise to God, that He 
Hath saved them from the fearful fire, 

And from th' ingulfing sea ! 

But where is he, that helmsman bold ? 

The captain saw him reel ; 
His nerveless hands released their task, 

He sank beside the wheel ! 
The wave received his lifeless corpse, 

Blackened with smoke and fire ! 
God rest him ! Never hero had 

A nobler funeral pyre ! 

Horatio Alger, Jr. 



A STORY OF STRUGGLE AND VICTORY. 



JOHN B. GOUGH. 




HE only ability I have is to tell a story. 
From the night I signed the pledge I began 
to tell the story. It was a story of priva- 
tion and suffering, of struggle and victory; 
a story of gloom and sunshine, one which 
I felt in the deepest depths of my own soul ; 
a story of God's infinite mercy. It is a 
simple story, and I have been telling it ever 
since. I know I have not education and logic, but I thank 
God I know that there are some men who, by hearing my 
story, have been able to make their life better, nobler and 
truer. The first words I ever uttered in a temperance meeting 
were : " What are you laughing at over there ?" for, when the 
chairman of the meeting gave me permission to say a few 
words, a young man who knew me began to laugh. I held up 



94 HEROIC SACRIFICES. 

my hand. I said: "Look there; are you laughing at that? 
I cannot hold my hand steady. It is drink that has done it. 
Now I am going to sign the temperance pledge." I did it, 
and although the signature is like Stephen Hopkins' on the 
Declaration of Independence, it was written, and although it is 
along time ago, that act is as fresh in my remembrance as. 
anything that occurred a week ago. I want to say a word or 
two in reference to the intemperate. What shall we do for 
them ? The great aim ought to be to put temptation out of 
the way — to crush out the liquor traffic, and save them from 
the temptations to which they are exposed at every corner. 
You can see very readily why we should do that ; but while 
we are doing that do not let us forget these unfortunate 
drunkards who are going to perdition. While we are working 
for prohibition let us labor for the restoration of the drunkard, 
not by wishing him success, but by doing something practical 
to help him. 

There is not a temperance man or woman who is not glad 
when men sign the pledge ; but how do many of them mani- 
fest their gladness and encouragement? A friend of mine 
stood by the pledge table in Exeter Hall, London, when a 
poor, drunken, ignorant sot, a broken-down prize fighter, a 
champion of the light weights, thirty- two years old, signed the 
pledge. My friend was a builder, and he employed seven or 
eight hundred men, and he wished to help this poor drunkard. 
Did he say : " I hope you will stick to it ; it will be a good 
thing for you if you stick to it?" No; but he asked: " Where 
are you going to sleep to-night?" "Where I did last night." 
" Where was that ?" " In the street." " No, you don't ; you 
signed the pledge, you joined our society, you belong to us ; 
you are going home with me." He told me that his wife had 
to burn the bed clothes the next morning ; but what is a set 
of bed clothes compared with the restoration and salvation of 
a man ? He did not mind the burning of the bed clothes so 
long as that man recovered sufficiently from the effects of 
drink to go to work. He was very ignorant, and he went to 



A STORY OF STRUGGLE AND VICTORY. 95 

Sunday school, where he learned his letters and how to put 
them together. Two years afterwards he stood up in that 
Sunday school and thanked God that he ever went there, and 
to-day that man is one of the most effective city missionaries 
in Whitechapel. That is the way to save men. These poor 
fellows need help. Suppose one of these poor fellows signs the 
pledge; there are a great many out-and-out temperance men 
and women who do not understand and do not know what 
that man has to go through. It is an easy thing to sign the 
pledge. A poor fellow said: "I would sign that pledge in a 
minute if anybody would take the next six weeks from me." 
How does he feel the next morning? Why, when the man 
rises, his mouth is dry and feverish, and one hand shakes; he 
has no power over his nerves. He knew this would come to 
him, but it seems to be worse than ever. There is a glass of 
liquor, and he knows that it will steady his nerves if he drinks 
it. He is shaking in every limb, and every nerve is twitching 
and stinging; but the liquor will relieve him at once, and there 
is an awful temptation to take it, and nine out often men can- 
not resist that without human help. When the mdn feels a 
horrible stagnation in the stomach, and when the blood won't 
flow, and he knows that a glass of whiskey will start the blood, 
there is a strong temptation. That man needs human help 
then and there. I do not ask you to take him to your house, 
but keep an eye upon him just after he signs the pledge, for 
men who break their pledges do so before the first struggle is 
over. These men know not what they need. In Edinburgh 
they have a club room, where temperance men invite men to 
come who are trying to reform. A man went in there one 
night very drunk. Mr. Cranston said: "Do you know what 
place this is?" " Yes, it is a teetotal club room." "Well, but 
you are drunk." "I know I am; I never denied I was drunk, 
did I?" "What business have you here, then?" "I am a 
teetotaler. I know I am drunk. Did you ever see a drunk 
teetotaler before ? because, if you did not, here is one." They 
thought he was feigning drunkenness, and said: "You had 



96 HEROIC SACRIFICES. 

better go out." "Don't put me out, gentlemen," he said, "I 
am a teetotaler; here is my pledge; I signed it down the 
street, about half an hour ago, and, so help me God, I haven't 
touched a drop since, and don't mean to. I have come here 
for safety." That, is what he wanted, and that is what every 
poor, struggling man needs. 



THE PATRIOTIC COURIER, B. C, 490. 



THOMAS ARCHER. 




" Rejoice ! rejoice! the victory is ours !" 

T is the cry of the Greek soldier — a solitary 
figure, who has come, with already failing 
feet and straining eyes, up the long road that 
leads to Athens from the level plain by the 
sea, between the foot of Pentelicus and the 
less prominent Mount of Hymettus — the 
plain of Marathon. 

Covered with dust and blood — the blood 
of the enemy mingled with his own — 
wounded, faint, and with armor and dress disordered, he has 
struggled onward toward the eminence where the Archons 
were assembled in the porch of the Athenian town hall. 
To bring the glorious news, he has left the conquering ranks 
of Miltiades, Aristides and Themistocles, only waiting to see 
the Persians flee to the ships that came to invade Attica, and 
are now — such of them as are not burned by the victorious 
Greeks before they can push off from the shore — the only 
place of refuge for that great army which Darius had sent 
to avenge the defiance of Athens and Sparta. The treacherous 
Hippias, the son of Pisistratus, once the tyrant of Athens, 
has led the invading force ; but he lies undistinguished amidst 
the heaps of slain. Six thousand Persians have fallen in this 



THE BLACKSMITH OF RAGENBACH. .97 

desperate battle, without counting those who have found a 
grave in the sea or have been consumed in the flames. 

Seven of the ships have been taken, and the pursuing 
lioplites and their commanders have sought to stay the rest by 
rushing waist-deep in the water and seizing the triremes. 
Among these was Cyraegirus, brother of the poet ^Eschylus, 
who, refusing to release his hold, and endeavoring to board 
the vessel that he had clutched in the fury of his pursuit, had 
his hand severed by a Median axe, and fell back into the sea 
and was drowned. About two hundred of the victorious 
army have fallen ; and now a single messenger, keeping his 
latest breath to accomplish this heroic journey of thirty miles 
from the sea border of Marathon to the city, lifts up his hands, 
and, with one cry of "Victory!" falls upon the marble steps, 
and is numbered with the dead. 



THE BLACKSMITH OF RAGENBACH. 



FRANK MURRY. 




£ 



^N a little German village, 

On the waters of the Rhine, 
Gay and joyous in their pastimes, 
In the pleasant vintage time, 
\r\ Were a group of happy peasants, 
For the day released from toil, 
Thanking God for all his goodness 
In the product of the soil ; 

When a cry ran through the welkin, 

And appeared upon the scene 
A panting dog, with crest erect, 

Foaming mouth and savage mien. 
He is mad ! " was shrieked in chorus : 

In dismay, they all fell back — 
All except one towering figure, 

'Twas the smith of Ragenbach ! 



98 HEROIC SACRIFICES. 

God had given this man his image ; 

Nature stamped him as complete ; 
Now it was incumbent on him 

To perform a greater feat 
Than Horatius at the bridge, 

When he stood on Tiber's bank ; 
For, behind him were his townfolk, 

Who, appalled with terror, shrank 

From the most appalling danger — 

That which makes the bravest quail ; 
While they all were grouped together, 

Shaking limbs and visage pale. 
For a moment cowered the beast, 

Snapping to the left and right, 
While the blacksmith stood before him 

In the power of his might. 

One must die to save the many, 

Let it then my duty be ; 
" I' ve the power. Fear not, neighbors ! 

From this peril you'll be free !" 
As the lightning from the storm cloud 

Leaps to earth with sudden crash, 
So upon the rabid monster 

Did this man and hero dash ! 

In the death-grip then they struggled, 

Man and dog, with scarce a sound, 
Till from out the fearful conflict 

Rose the man from off the ground, 
Gashed and gory from the struggle ; 

But the beast lay stiff and dead ! 
There he stood, while people gathered, 

And rained blessings on his head. 

" Friends," he said, " from one great peril, 

With God's help, I' ve set you free ; 
But my task is not yet ended, 

There is danger now in me ! 
Yet secure from harm you shall be ; 

None need fear before I die ; 
That my sufferings may be shortened, 

Ask of Him who rules on high." 



MOLIERE'S LAST DA Y. 99 

Then unto his forge he straightway- 
Walked erect, with rapid step, 

While the people followed after, 

Some with shouts, while others wept ; 

And with nerve as steady as when 
He had plied his trade for gain, 

He selected, without faltering, 

From his store, the heaviest chain. 

To his anvil, first, he bound it, 

Next his limb he shackled fast, 
Then he said unto his townsfolk 
" All your danger now is past ! 
Place within my reach, I pray you, 

Food and water for a time, 
Until God shall ease my sufferings 

By His gracious will divine." 

Long he suffered, but at last, 

Came a summons from on high ; 
Then his soul, with angel escort, 

Sought its home beyond the sky ; 
And the people of that village, 

Those whom he had died to save, 
Still, with grateful hearts, assemble, 

And with flowers bedeck his grave. 



MOLIERE'S LAST DAY. 



ANONYMOUS. 



It is told of Moliere, that on the morning of the day on 
which he died, his wife and friends, seeing how weak he was, 
tried to prevent him going down to play that night, but in 
vain. "A man," said he, " suffers long ere he dies; I feel that 
with me the end is at hand ; but there are fifty poor working- 
men who have only their day's wages to live on, and who is 
to give them bread to-night if I play not?" So he went 
down, and played his great composition, the Malade Imagi- 
nairc — dying all the while, then went home to bed, and died. 



100 



HEROIC SACRIFICES. 
THE DRUMMER BOY. 



(A touching incident of the Crimean War.) 



kAPTAIN GRAHAM, the men were sayin' 
§ Ye would want a drummer lad, 
^ So I've brought my boy, Sandie, 
? Tho' my heart is woful sad ; 
/ But nae bread is left to feed us, 
* And no siller to buy more, 
For the gudeman sleeps forever, 
Where the heather blossoms o'er. 



" Sandie, make your manners quickly, 
Play your blithest measure true — ■ 
Give us ' Flowers of Edinboro,' 
While yon fifer plays it, too. 
Captain, heard ye e'er a player 
Strike in truer time than he ? " 
" Nay, in truth, brave Sandie Murray 
Drummer of our corps shall be." 

" I give ye thanks — but Captain, maybe 

Ye will hae a kindly care 
For the friendless, lonely laddie, 

When the battle wark is sair : 
For Sandie's aye been good and gentle, 

And I've nothing else to love, 
Nothing — but the grave off yonder, 

And the Father up above." 



Then, her rough hand gently laying 

On the curl-encircled head, 
She blessed her boy. The tent was silent, 

And not another word was said ; 
For Captain Graham was sadly dreaming 

Of a benison, long ago, 
Breathed above his head, then golden, 

Bending now, and touched with snow. 



THE DRUMMER BOY. 101 

"Good-bye, Sandie." "Good-bye, mother, 
I'll come back some summer day ; 
Don't you fear — they don't shoot drummers 

Ever. Do they, Captain Gra ? 

One more kiss — watch for me, mother, 

You will know 'tis surely me 
Coming home — for you will hear me 
Playing soft the reveille." 

***** 

After battle. Moonbeams ghastly 

Seemed to link in strange affright, 
As the scudding clouds before them 

Shadowed faces dead and white ; 
And the night-wind softly whispered, 

When low moans its light wing bore — 
Moans that ferried spirits over 

Death's dark wave to yonder shore. 

Wandering where a footstep careless 

Might go splashing down in blood, 
Or a helpless hand lie grasping 

Death and daisies from the sod, 
Captain Graham walked swift onward, 

While a faintly-beaten drum 
Quickened heart and step together : 

" Sandie Murray ! See, I come ! 

" Is it thus I find you, laddie ? 
Wounded, lonely, lying here, 
Playing thus the reveille ? 

See — the morning is not near." 
A moment paused the drummer boy, 
And lifted up his drooping head : 
" Oh, Captain Graham, the light is coming, 
'Tis morning, and my prayers are said. 

" Morning ! See, the plains grow brighter — 

Morning — and I'm going home ; 
That is why I play the measure, 

Mother will not see me come ; 
But you'll tell her, won't you, Captain — " 

Hush, the boy has spoken true ; 
To him the day has dawned forever, 

Unbroken by the night's tattoo. — Anonymous. 



102 



HEROIC SACRIFICES. 
A MODEL WOMAN, 




O W, it came to pass, in the days of Ahasuerus 
(that is, Ahasuerus which reigned from 
India, even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred 
and seven and twenty provinces), that, in 
those days, when the King Ahasuerus sat 
on the throne of his kingdom which was 
in Shushan, the palace, in the third year of 
his reign he made a feast unto all his 

princes and his servants ; the power of Persia and Media, the 

nobles and princes, being before him. 

" On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry 
with wine, he commanded the seven chamberlains that served 
in the presence of Ahasuerus, the king, to bring Vashti, the 
queen, before the king, with the crown royal, to show the 
people and the princes her beauty, for she was fair to look on. 
But the queen, Vashti, refused to come at the king's com- 
mandment by his chamberlains ; therefore was the king very 
wroth, and his anger burned in him. 

"Then the king said to the wise men which knew the times, 
what shall we do unto the queen Vashti, according to law, 
because she hath not performed the commandment of the king 
Ahasuerus by the chamberlains ? 

"And Memucan answered before the king and the princes; 
if it please the king, let there go out a royal commandment from 
him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and 
Medes, that it be not altered, that Vashti come no more before 
King Ahasuerus ; and let the king give her royal estate unto 
another, that is better than she. 

" And the saying pleased the king and the princes ; and the 
king did according to the word of Memucan." — Esther, Chap. i. 

From out an Eastern heathen empire that flourished ages 



A MODEL WOMAN. 103 

ago there looks down upon us, a light and guide to the 
women of the nineteenth century, a strong, womanly character, 
Vashti, queen of Ahasuerus and of his court. The hand of 
the historian parts the curtain and reveals to us the unequaled 
splendors of this court of the Persian king. It is the third 
year of his reign ; and in the flush of pride and manhood the 
king, who ruled over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces — 
from India even to Ethiopia — gave a feast. A hundred and 
eighty days he showed the riches and honor of his kingdom 
before the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes 
of his provinces. There is at last the hush of revelry — the 
banqueting of the feast is over. This is followed by a feast 
of seven days " for all the people, great and small." The 
splendors of the former baffled the historian's pen. It is here, 
in this lesser feast only, that we catch the details of magnifi- 
cent preparation. There are hangings of white, green and 
blue; cords of fine linen and purple; silver rings and pillars 
of marble ; sofas of gold and silver on pavements of porphyry, 
marble, alabaster and stone of blue; drinking vessels of gold; 
wine in abundance. The drinking was regulated by law — 
none were compelled. " It was only the court whose law was 
not ' drink and begone.' " Beside this, Vashti, the queen, 
made a feast for the women of the king's house. The last 
day of the feast had come, and the king's heart was merry 
with wine. He sought some new pleasure for the feasting 
throng. But of all his treasures there was nothing new left 
with which to entertain his guests save Vashti, the queen, 
beautiful and strong. And Vashti was by the seven cham- 
berlains of the king commanded to appear before him in royal 
crown, decked in purple and gold and rare embroidery. 

Standing in the midst of the women of the king's house, she 
received her lord's command. The jewels that encircled 
heavily her neck and arms and fingers flashed in the light. 
But the virtue, the womanliness of the heathen queen, as 
standing there she received the king's command and refused 
to go, flashed out upon the moral world a light that has never 



104 HEROIC SACRIFICES. 

died. One may almost see this woman dare send back this 
answer. She looks her beauty, her womanhood, herself, and 
she will not flaunt them before an idle throng. Her strongest 
characteristic is her common sense ; and it was this counsellor 
which sent back that self-protective answer and stirred the 
wrath of a heathen despot. Then there comes the sound of 
anger, a hasty council, the framing of a law — and the feast that 
had magnified the kingdom ends in a public shame. The 
brave queen from out the palace goes uncrowned, yet wearing 
before all nations the right royal crown of a true and lofty 
womanhood. — Christian at Work. 



TWO MOTHERS. 

fURING the darkest period of the French 
Revolution occurred the following incident, 
so characteristic of the sympathy of one 
mother for another, in whatever condition of 
life. The grandfather of the present Marquis 
de Custine was on trial before one of the 
sanguinary tribunals of the day. 

The father of the Marquis was absent, as 
ambassador in Prussia ; and his mother hastened to Paris to 
save, if possible, the life of her father-in-law. 

" Every day," says the Marquis, " she was present in the 
court, during my grandfather's trial, sitting at his feet. Mornings 
and evenings, she visited personally the members of the revolu- 
tionary tribunal, and the members of the committee, and so great 
was the power of her beauty, and the interest excited by her 
presence, that at one of the last sittings of the tribunal the women 
of the gallery, though unused to tears, were seen to weep. The 
marks of sympathy which these furies gave to the daughter- 
in-law of Custine irritated the president so much that, during 
the session, he gave secret orders that the life of my mother 
should be secretly taken as she descended the steps of the hall. 



TWO MOTHERS. 105 

"The accused was re-conducted to his prison. His daughter- 
in-law, on leaving the tribunal, prepared to descend the steps 
of the palace, to regain, alone and on foot, the carriage which 
was waiting for her in a distant street. No one dared to ac- 
company her, at least openly, for fear of increasing the danger. 
Timid and shy as a hare, she had, all her life, an instinctive 
dread of a crowd. Imagine the steps of the Palace of Justice, 
that long flight of stairs, covered with the crowded masses of 
an angry populace, gorged with blood, and already too much 
accustomed to performing their horrid office to draw back 
from one murder more. 

" My mother, trembling, stopped at the head of the steps. 
Her eyes commanded the place where Madame Lamballe had 
been murdered some months before. A friend of my father 
had succeeded in getting a note to her while in court, to warn 
her to redouble her prudence ; but this advice increased the 
danger, instead of averting it. My mother's alarm being 
greater, she had less presence of mind; she thought herself 
lost ; and this idea was almost fatal to her. If I tremble and 
fall, as Madame Lamballe did, thought she, it is all over with 
me. The furious mob thickened incessantly about her path. 
' It is Custine, it is the daughter-in-law of the traitor ! ' cried 
they, on every side. Every outcry was seasoned with oaths 
and atrocious imprecations. 

" How should she descend — how should she pass through the 
fiend-like crowd ? Some, with drawn swords, placed themselves 
before her ; others, without vests, their shirt-sleeves turned up, 
were driving away their wives. This was the precursor of an 
execution. The danger increased. My mother thought that 
if she exhibited the slightest weakness, she should be thrown 
to the ground, and her fall would be the signal for her death. 

" At last, casting her eyes around, she perceived one of the 
fish-women, a most hideous-looking creature, advancing in the 
middle of the crowd. This woman had a nursing infant in 
her arms. Impelled by the God of Mothers, the daughter of 
■ the traitor ' approached this mother — a mother is something 



106 



HEROIC SACRIFICES. 



more than a woman — and said to her, ' what a pretty child you 
have there ! ' ' Take it,' replied the mother, who, degraded as 
she was, understood everything, with a word — a look — ' you 
can give it back to me at the bottom of the steps.' 

" Maternal electricity had acted on the two hearts — the 
crowd felt it. My mother took the child, embraced it, and 
made use of it as an ^Egis against the enraged crowd. 

"The man of nature resumed his rights over the man bru- 
talized by the effects of social disease ; the barbarians calling 
themselves civilized, were conquered by two mothers. 

" Mine, rescued, descends into the court of the Palace of 
Justice, crosses it, goes toward the square, without receiving a 
blow, or the least injury. She reached the grating, and gave 
back the child to the person who had lent it to her ; and, in 
the same moment, they separated without speaking a single 
word. The place was not favorable for thanks or explanations. 
They said nothing to each other of their secret. They never 
saw each other again ! The souls of these two mothers will 
meet somewhere else." — From the French of De Custine. 



THE EARL OF STRAFFORD AND CHARLES I. 




OLIVER GOLDSMITH. 



HE Earl of Strafford defended himself against 
the accusations of the House of Commons, 
with all the presence of mind, judgment, 
and sagacity, that could be expected from 
innocence and ability. His children were 
placed beside him, as he was thus defending 
his life and the cause of his royal master. 
After he had, in a long and eloquent speech, 
delivered without premeditation, confuted all the accusations 
of his enemies, he thus drew to a conclusion. " But, my lords, 
I have troubled you too long : longer than I should have done, 
but for the sake of these dear pledges, which a saint in heaven 



THE EARL OF STRAFFORD AND CHARLES L 107 

has left me." Upon this he paused ; dropped a tear ; looked 
upon his children, and proceeded. " What I forfeit for myself 
is a trifle : that my indiscretions should reach my posterity, 
wounds me to the heart. Pardon my infirmity. Something I 
should have added, but I am not able ; and therefore I let it 
pass. And now, my lords, for myself. I have long been 
taught that the afflictions of this life are overpaid by that 
eternal weight of glory which awaits the innocent. And so, 
my lords, even so, with the utmost tranquillity, I submit myself 
to your judgment, whether that judgment be life or death: 
not my will, but thine, O God, be done ! " 

His eloquence and innocence induced those judges to pity 
who were the most zealous to condemn him. The king him- 
self went to the House of Lords, and spoke for some time in 
his defence; but the spirit of vengeance, which had been 
chained for eleven years, was now roused, and nothing but his 
blood could give the people satisfaction. He was condemned 
by both houses of Parliament ; and nothing remained but for 
the king to give his consent to the bill of attainder. But in 
the present commotions, the consent of the king would very 
easily be dispensed with ; and imminent danger might attend 
his refusal. Charles, however, who loved Strafford tenderly, 
hesitated, and seemed reluctant; trying every expedient to put 
off so dreadful an office as that of signing the warrant for his 
execution. While he continued in this agitation of mind and 
state of suspense, his doubts were at last silenced by an act 
of great magnanimity in the condemned lord. He received a 
letter from that unfortunate nobleman, desiring that his life 
might be made a sacrifice to obtain reconciliation between the 
king and his people ; adding, that he was prepared to die, and 
that to a willing mind there could be no injury. This instance 
of noble generosity was but ill-repaid by his master, who com- 
plied with his request. He consented to sign the fatal bill by 
commission ; and Strafford was beheaded on Tower-hill, May 
1 2th, 1 64 1 ; behaving with all that composed dignity of reso- 
lution which was expected from his character. 



108 



HEROIC SACRIFICES. 
PASTOR DANKWARDT. 

(Pomerania, 1807.) 



ANNIE FIELD. 




aUs 



ws 



Fast by the Baltic Sea, 
When the French Emperor sent his troops 
To bend the people's knee, 

And dwell within their houses, 

Feasting on wine and corn, 
Till German hearts should learn to feel 

The might of foreign scorn ; 

They came to Bodenstede, 

A hamlet green and still, 
With fountain in the market place, 

Where maids their pitchers fill ; 

They overran the village street, 

They overran the inn, 
They stole the peasants' ripening crops, 

And strove the maids to win ; 

And up and down, throughout the night, 

They sang their ribald song, 
While hidden evils darted forth 

To join the lawless throng. 

How fair was Bodenstede ! 

But deeds the Frenchmen wrought 
Among her pleasant summer fields 

No peaceful harvest brought. 

The people seized the soldiers, 
And bore them to the strand, 

And shipped them to a barren shore 
Within a hostile land, 

And then returned rejoicing ; 

But he, the nation's fate, 
Quickly dispatched a mightier corps 

To hold the conquered State. 



PASTOR DANKWARDT. 109 

Alas for Bodenstede ! 

How sad the sun uprose 
That day ; the foreign flags returned 

Before his golden close ! 

Rode forth Commander Mortier : 
" Seize all the men," he cried, 
" Who rule in Bodenstede, 

And place them side by side ; 

"And at the signal given, 

Shoot each man where he stands ; 
They that remain shall live to see 
Their blazing homes and lands." 

Then forward stepped the pastor ; 
His eyes were bright as flame ; 
" If any man is shot, shoot me ; 
Mine is the guilt and shame. 

" I bade the people to revolt, 
And drag the men away ; 
I sent them to the Swedish shore ; 
'Twas I urged on the fray. 

" Hear me, O sire, how innocent 
These people surely are ; 
I pray thee burn my guilty roof, 
But all the others spare." 

The stern Commander, Mortier, 

Heard what the pastor said, 
One moment stood irresolute, 

Then turned his horse's head, 

And putting spurs to flank they rode 

Out from the wondering town ; 
And as they passed, the word was given, 

" These fisher-huts burn down ! " 

A few poor sheds where no man dwelt ! 

No blood that day they spilled. 
And thus Commander Mortier 

The Emperor's law fulfilled. 



110 



HEROIC SACRIFICES. 



Those battle-fields are overgrown ; 

Dim is their glory now ; 
But Virtue, ever wakeful, shines ; 

The stars are on her brow. 

The pastor, in his flowing gown, 

Before the armed host, 
Joyfully giving life and home 

If he may save the lost. 

Deep in the German fatherland 

This rooted memory grows, 
And safe within the children's heart 

The living picture glows. 

— Harpers' Magazine. 



MAHMOUD. 




jAHMOUD, the third prince of the dynasty 
of Ghwzni, was born in the latter part of 
the tenth century. He was noted for his 
strict sense of justice, as well as for his 
martial spirit. In the course of his reign, 
he extended his dominions from the Tigris 
to the Ganges, and from the Oxus to the 
Indian Ocean. He died about the year 
1030 A. D. The following instance of his determined justice 
is recorded by all his historians : — 

A poor man had complained that a young noble of the court 
came constantly to his house at night, turned him out of doors, 
and committed other outrageous indignities. The monarch 
bade him give notice the next time this occurred. He did as 
he was directed, and Mahmoud went with him to his house. 
When he reached it, he put out a lamp that was burning, and, 
having found the paramour, struck off his head with one blow 
of his cimeter. He then called for a light, and, after viewing 
the corpse, fell upon his knees and returned thanks to heaven, 



MAHMOUD. Ill 

after which he bade the astonished husband bring him. water, 
of which he drank an immoderate quantity. " You are sur- 
prised at my actions," said Mahmoud, " but know that since 
you informed me of the outrage you suffered, I have neither 
slept, eat, nor drank. I conceived that no person, except one 
of my sons, would dare openly to commit so great a crime ; 
resolved to do justice, I extinguished the light, that my feel- 
ings as a father might not prevent me from doing my duty as 
a sovereign ; my prayers were a thanksgiving to the Almighty 
when I saw that I had not been compelled to slay one of my 
own offspring, and I drank, as you observed, like a man that 
was expiring of thirst." 

There came a man, making his hasty moan 
Before the Sultan Mahmoud on his throne, 
And crying out, " My sorrow is my right, 
And I will see the Sultan, and to-night." 

"Sorrow," said Mahmoud, " is a reverend thing : 
I recognize its right, as king with king ; 
Speak on." " A fiend has got into my house," 
Exclaimed the staring man, " and tortures us : 
One of thine officers ; he comes, the abhorred, 
And takes possession of my house, my board, 
My bed : I have two daughters and a wife, 
And the wild villain comes and makes me mad with life." 

" Is he there now?" said Mahmoud. " No ; he left 
The house when I did, of my wits bereft, 
And laughed me down the street, because I vowed 
I'd bring the prince himself to lay him in his shroud ; 
I'm mad with want — I'm mad with misery, 
And O thou Sultan Mahmoud, God cries out for thee ! " 

The Sultan comforted the man, and said, 
" Go home, and I will send thee wine and bread," 
(For he was poor) " and other comforts. Go : 
And should the wretch return, let Sultan Mahmoud know." 

In three days' time, with haggard eyes and beard, 
And shaken voice, the suitor re-appeared, 
And said, "He's come." Mahmoud said not a word, 
But rose and took four slaves, each with a sword, 



112 HEROIC SACRIFICES. 

And went with the vexed man. They reach the place, 
And hear a voice, and see a woman's face, 
That to the window fluttered in affright : 
"Go in," said Mahmoud, " and put out the light; 
But tell the females first to leave the room ; 
And when the drunkard follows them, we come." 

The man went in. There was a cry, and hark ! — 

A table falls, the window is struck dark : 

Forth rush the breathless women ; and behind, 

With curses, comes the fiend, in desperate mind. 

In vain : the sabres soon cut short the strife, 

And chop the shrieking wretch, and drink his. bloody life. 

" Now light the light," the Sultan cried aloud : 
'Twas done : he took it in his hand attd bowed 
Over the corpse, and looked upon the face ; 
Then turned and knelt, and to the throne of grace 
Put up a prayer, and from his lips there crept 
Some gentle words of pleasure, and he wept. 

In reverent silence the beholders wait ; 
They bring him at his call both wine and meat ; 
And when he had refreshed his noble heart, 
He bade his host be blest, and rose up to depart. 

The man, amazed, all mildness, now in tears, 
Fell at the Sultan's feet with many prayers, 
And begged him to vouchsafe to tell his slave 
The reason first of that command he gave 
About the light ; then, when he saw the face, 
Why he knelt down ; and, lastly, how it was 
That fare so poor as his detained him in his place. 

The Sultan said, with a benignant eye, 
" Since first I saw thee come, and heard thy cry, 
I could not rid me of a dread, that one 
By whom such daring villainies were done 
Must be some lord of mine, — ay, e'en perhaps a son. 
For this I had the light put out ; but when 
I saw the face, and found the stranger slain, 
I knelt and thanked the sovereign Arbiter, 
Whose work I had performed through pain and fear ; 
And then I rose and was refreshed with food, 
The first time since thy voice has marred my solitude." 

Leigh Hunt. 



THE LIGHT BRIGADE A T B A LAC LA VA. 113 

THE LIGHT BRIGADE AT BALACLAVA. 




T was on the twenty-fifth of October, 1854, 
during the Crimean War, while the opposing 
armies — Russian on the one side, and the 
French and English on the other — were 
encamped near the village of Balaclava, a 
Russian port on the northern shore of the 
Black Sea, that the events commemorated 
in the following sketch and poem took place. 
It appears that the quartermaster-general, 
Brigadier Airey, thinking that the light cavalry had not gone far 
enough in front when the enemy's horse had fled, gave an 
order, in writing, to Captain Nolan, Fifteenth Hussars, to take 
to Lord Lucan, directing his lordship "to advance" his cavalry- 
nearer to the enemy. . A braver soldier than Captain Nolan 
the army did not possess. He rode off with his orders to Lord 
Lucan. 

When Lord Lucan received the order from Captain Nolan, 
and had read it, he asked, we are told, " Where are we to ad- 
vance to?" Captain Nolan pointed to the line of the Russians, 
and said, "There are the enemy, and there are the guns, sir, 
before them; it is your duty to take them," or words to that 
effect. Lord Lucan, with reluctance, gave the order to Lord 
Cardigan to advance upon the guns, conceiving that his orders 
compelled him to do so. The noble earl, though he did not 
shrink, also saw the fearful odds against them. Don Quixote, 
in his tilt against the windmill, was not near so rash and reck- 
less as the gallant fellows who prepared, without a thought, to 
rush on almost certain death. 

It is a maxim of war, that "cavalry never act without a sup- 
port;" that infantry should be close at hand when cavalry 
carry guns, as the effect is only instantaneous, and that it is 
necessary to have on the flank of a line of cavalry some 
squadrons in column, the attack on the flank being most dan- 



114 HEROIC SACRIFICES. 

gerous. The only support our light cavalry had was the re- 
serve of heavy cavalry at a great distance behind them, the 
infantry and guns being far in the rear. There were no 
squadrons in column at all, and there was a plain to charge 
over, before the enemy's guns were reached, of a mile and a 
half in length. At ten minutes past eleven our light cavalry 
brigade advanced. The whole brigade scarcely made one 
effective regiment, according to the numbers of Continental 
armies, and yet it was more than we could spare. As they 
rushed toward the front the Russians opened on them from 
the guns in the redoubt on the right, with volleys of musketry 
and rifles. They swept proudly past, glittering in the morning 
sun in all the pride and splendor of war. 

We could scarcely believe the evidence of our senses! 
Surely that handful of men are not going to charge an army 
in position? 

Alas ! it was but too true. Their desperate valor knew no 
bounds, and far, indeed, was it removed from its so-called 
better part, discretion. They advanced in two lines, quickening 
their pace as they closed toward the enemy. A more fearful 
spectacle was never witnessed than by those who beheld these 
heroes rushing to the arms of death. At the distance of 1200 
yards the whole line of the enemy belched forth from thirty 
iron mouths a flood of flame and smoke, through which hissed 
the deadly balls. The flight was marked by instant gaps in 
our ranks; by dead men and horses; by steeds flying wounded 
or riderless across the plain. The first line is broken — it is 
joined by the second — they never halt or check their speed an 
instant; with diminished ranks, thinned by those thirty guns, 
which the Russians had laid with the utmost deadly accuracy, 
with a halo of flashing steel above their heads, and with a 
cheer which was many a noble fellow's death cry, they flew 
into the smoke of the batteries ; but ere they were lost from 
view, the plain was strewed with their bodies, and with the 
carcases of horses. 

They were exposed to an oblique fire from the batteries on 



THE LIGHT BRIGADE AT BALA CLA VA. 1 1 5 

the hills on both sides, as well as to a direct fire of musketry. 
Through the clouds of smoke we could see their sabres flash- 
ing as they rode up to the guns and dashed between them, 
cutting down the gunners as they stood. 

To our delight, we saw them returning after breaking 
through a column of Russian infantry, and scattering them 
like chaff, when the flank-fire of the battery on the hill swept 
them down, scattered and broken as they were. Wounded 
men and dismounted troopers flying towards us told the sad 
tale. Demigods could not have done what they had failed 
to do. 

At the very moment when they were about to retreat, an 
enormous mass of lancers was hurled on their flank. Colonel 
Shewell, of the Eighth Hussars, saw the danger, and rode his 
few men straight at them, cutting his way through with fearful 
loss. The other regiments turned, and engaged in a desperate 
encounter. With courage too great almost for credence, they 
were breaking their way through the columns which enveloped 
them, when there took place an act of atrocity without parallel 
in the modern warfare of civilized nations. 

The Russian gunners, when the storm of cavalry passed, 
returned to their guns. They saw their own cavalry mingled 
with the troopers who had just ridden over them; and, to the 
eternal disgrace of the Russian name, the miscreants poured 
a murderous volley of grape and canister on the mass of 
struggling men and horses, mingling friend and foe in one 
common ruin! It was as much as our heavy cavalry brigade 
could do to cover the retreat of the miserable remnants of the 
band of heroes as they returned to the place they had so lately 
quitted. At thirty-five minutes past eleven not a British soldier, 
except the dead and dying, was left in front of the Russian 
guns. W. H. Russell. 

Half a league, half a league, 
Half a league onward, 
All in the valley of Death, 
Rode the six hundred. 



116 HER OIC SA CRIFICES. 

" Forward, the Light Brigade ! 
Charge for the guns !" he said ; 
Into the valley of Death 
Rode the six hundred. 

" Forward, the Light Brigade !" 
Was there a man dismayed ? 
Not though the soldier knew 

Some one had blundered ; 
Theirs not to make reply, 
Theirs not to reason why, 
Theirs but to do and die, 
Into the valley of Death 

Rode the six hundred. 

Cannon to right of them, 
Cannon to left of them, 
Cannon in front of them 

Volleyed and thundered ; 
Stormed at with shot and shell, 
Boldly they rode and well ; 
Into the jaws of Death, 
Into the mouth of Hell, 

Rode the six hundred. 

Flashed all their sabres bare, 
Flashed as they turned in air, 
Sab'ring the gunners there, 
Charging an army, while 

All the world wondered ; 
Plunged in the battery-smoke, 
Right through the line they broke ; 

Cossack and Russian 
Reeled from the sabre-stroke, 

Shattered and sundered. 
Then they rode back, but not — ■ 

Not the six hundred. 

Cannon to right of them, 
Cannon to left of them, 
Cannon behind them 

Volleyed and thundered ; 
Stormed at with shot and shell, 
While horse and hero fell, 
They that had fought so well 



JEPHTHAITS VOW. 



117 



Came through the jaws of death, 
Back from the mouth of Hell, 
All that was left of them — 
Left of six hundred. 

When can their glory fade ? 
Oh, the wild charge they made! 

All the world wondered. 
Honor the charge they made ! 
Honor the Light Brigade, 

Noble six hundred. 

Alfred Tennyson. 



JEPHTHAH'S VOW. 



N. P. WILLIS. 




ND Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord, and 
said : " If thou shalt, without fail, deliver the 
children of Ammon into mine hands, then shall 
it be that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors 
of my house to meet me, when I return in peace 
from the children of Ammon, shall surely be 
the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt 
offering." 

So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to 

fight against them ; and the Lord delivered them into his 

hands ************** 

Thus the children of Ammon were subdued before the 

children of Israel. 

And Jephthah came to Mizpeh, unto his house, and, behold, 
his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with 
dances ; and she was his only child ; beside her he had neither 
son nor daughter. And it came to pass that when he saw her 
he rent his clothes and said : " Alas, my daughter, thou hast 
brought me very low, and thou art one of- them that trouble 
me ; for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot 



118 HER OIC SA CRIEICES. 

go back." And she said unto him, " My father, if thou hast 
opened thy mouth unto the Lord, do to me according to that 
which hath proceeded out of thy mouth ; forasmuch as the 
Lord hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even of 
the children of Ammon." And she said unto her father, " Let 
this thing be done for me." ******** 
And it came to pass at the end of two months that she 
returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow 
which he had vowed. And it was a custom in Israel that the 
daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of 
Jephthah, the Gileadite, four days in a year. — -Judges, chap. xi. 

****** The w i n( j bore on 

The leaden tramp of thousands ; clarion notes 

Rang sharply on the ear, at intervals ; 

And the low, mingled din of mighty hosts 

Returning from the battle, poured from far, 

Like the deep murmur of a restless sea. 

They came, as earthly conquerors always come, 

With blood and splendor, revelry and woe ! 

The stately horse treads proudly — he hath trod 

The brow of death as well. The chariot wheels 

Of warriors roll magnificently on — 

Their weight hath crushed the fallen. Man is there. 

Majestic, lordly man — with his sublime 

And elevated brow and God-like frame, 

Lifting his crest in triumph — for his heel 

Hath trod the dying, like a wine press, down ! 

The mighty Jephthah led his warriors on 
Through Mizpeh's streets. His helm was proudly set, 
And his stern lip curled slightly, as if praise 
Were for the hero's scorn. His step was firm, 
But free as India's Leopard ; and his mail — 
Whose shekels none in Israel might bear- 
Was like a cedar's tassel on his frame. 
His crest was Judah's kingliest ; and the look 
Of his dark, lofty eye and bended brow 
Might quell the lion. He led on ; but thoughts 
Seemed gathering round which troubled him. The veins 
Grew visible upon his swarthy brow ; 
And his proud lip was pressed as if with pain. 



JEPHTHAW S VOW. H9 

He trod less firmly, and his restless eye 

Glanced forward frequently, as if some ill 

He dared not meet were there. His home was near; 

And men were thronging with that strange delight 

They have in human passions, to observe 

The struggle of his feelings with his pride. 

He gazed intently forward. The tall firs 

Before his tent were motionless. The leaves 

Of the sweet aloe, and the clustering vines 

Which half concealed his threshold, met his eye — 

Unchanged and beautiful; and one by one, 

The balsam, with its sweet-distilling stems, 

And the Circassian rose, and all the crowd 

Of silent and familiar things, stole up, 

Like the recovered passages of dreams. 

He strode on rapidly — a moment more, 

And he had reached his home ; when, lo ! there sprang 

One, with a bounding footstep, and a brow 

Of light, to meet him Oh, how beautiful ! 

Her dark eye flashing like a sun-lit gem — ■ 

And her luxuriant hair — 'twas like the sweep 

Of a swift wing in visions. He stood still, 

As if the sight had withered him. She threw 

Her arms about his neck — he heeded not. 

She called him " Father ;" but he answered not. 

She stood and gazed upon him. Was he wroth ? 

There was no anger in that bloodshot eye. 

Had sickness seized him ? She unclasped his helm, 

And laid her white hand gently on his brow, 

And the large veins felt stiff and hard, like chords ; 

The touch aroused him. He raised up his hands, 

And spoke the name of God, in agony. 

She knew that he was stricken, then, and rushed 

Again into his arms ; and with a flood 

Of tears she could not bridle, sobbed a prayer 

That he would tell her of his wretchedness. 

He told her — and a momentary flush 

Shot o'er her countenance ; and then the soul 

Of Jephthah's daughter wakened ; and she stood 

Calmly and nobly up, and said 'twas well — 

And she would die. ****** 

******* The sun had well nigh set ; 

The fire was on the altar ; and the priest 



120 



HEROIC SACRIFICES. 



Of the high God was there. A wasted man 

Was stretching out his withered hands to Heaven, 

As if he would have prayed, but had no words ; 

And she who was to die — the calmest one 

In Israel at that hour — stood up alone, 

And waited for the sun to set. Her face 

Was pale, but very beautiful ; her lip 

Had a more delicate outline, and the tint 

Was deeper ; but her countenance was like 

The majesty of angels ! 

The sun set ; 
And she was dead, but not by violence. 



THE GREEKS AT THERMOPYL^. 



They fell, devoted, but undying ; 
The very gale their names seemed sighing ; 
The waters murmured of their name ; 
The woods were peopled with their fame ; 
The silent pillar, lone and gray, 
Claimed kindred with their sacred clay ; 
Their spirits wrapped the dusky mountain, 
Their memories sparkled o'er the fountain ; 
The meanest rill, the mightiest river, 
Rolled mingling with their fame forever. 

Lord Byron. 




HERMOPYL^E is a celebrated pass, or 
defile, between Thessaly and Locris, and 
was, in antiquity, the only passage for an 
enemy from Northern into Central Greece. 
It is situated between Mt. ^Etna and the 
Maliac Gulf, and the road or passage was 
then only wide enough for a single wagon 
track. 

When Athens and Sparta resolved to resist the invasion of 
Xerxes, it was here that Leonidas, king of the latter country, 
took up his position. His forces numbered about 7000 ; but 
when, during the battle, he learned that one Ephialtes, a 



THE GREEKS AT THERMOPYLAE. 121 

Thessalian, had betrayed to the Persians a circuitous pass over 
the mountains, leading to the rear, he dismissed all but his 
chosen band of 300 Spartans, with about 700 Thespians and 
400 Thebans, who volunteered to share his fate. This small 
host sallied out and fought till Leonidas and all the Spartans 
and Thespians were killed. The fate of the Thebans is uncer- 
tain. One Spartan, Aristodemus, who was prevented by illness 
from partaking in the combat, returned home, and was received 
with scorn, but in the following year he retrieved his honor 
by a heroic death at Plataea. 

It was a wild midnight — a storm was on the sky ; 
The lightning gave it light and the thunder echoed by ; 
The torrent swept the glen, the ocean lashed the shore ; 
Then rose the Spartan men, to make their bed in gore ! 

Swift, from the deluged ground three hundred took the shield; 
Then, in silence, gathered round the leader of the field ! 
All up the mountain's side, all down the woody vale, 
All by the rolling tide waved the Persian banners pale. 

And foremost from the pass, among the slumbering band, 
Sprang King Leonidas, like the lightning's living brand; 
Then double darkness fell, and the forest ceased its moan ; 
But there came a clash of steel, and a distant dying groan. 

Anon, a trumpet blew, and a fiery sheet burst high, 

That o'er the midnight threw a blood-red canopy; 

A hostr glared on the hill; a host glared by the bay; 

But the Greeks rushed onward still, like leopards in their play. 

The air was all a yell, the earth was all a flame, 
Where the Spartans' bloody steel on the silken turbans came ; 
And still the Greeks rushed on, where the fiery torrent rolled, 
Till, like a rising sun, shone Xerxes' tent of gold. 

They found a royal feast, his midnight banquet there ; 
And the treasures of the East lay beneath the Doric spear. 
Then sat to the repast the bravest of the brave ! 
That feast must be their last, that spot must be their grave. 



122 



HEROIC SACRIFICES. 



Up rose the glorious rank, to Greece one cup poured high, 
Then, hand in hand, they drank "To immortality ! " 
Fear on King Xerxes fell, when, like spirits from the tomb, 
With shout and trumpet knell, he saw the warriors come. 

But down swept all his power, with chariot and with charge ; 
Down poured the arrows' shower, till sank the Spartan targe. 
Thus fought the Greek of old ! thus will he fight again ! 
Shall not the self-same mould bring forth the self-same men ? 

George Croly. 



REGULUS TO THE CARTHAGINIANS. 



REV. ELIJAH KELLOGG. 




EGULUS was a Roman general, who, in the 
first Punic war, was taken prisoner by the 
Carthaginians, and after a captivity of several 
years, was sent by them to Rome, with an 
embassy, to solicit peace, or, at least, an ex- 
change of prisoners. But Regulus earnestly 
dissuaded his countrymen from both, and, 
resisting all the persuasions of his friends to 
remain in Rome, he returned to Carthage, where he is said to 
have been put to death, with the most cruel tortures. The 
following animated description of his arrival at Carthage is 
everywhere radiant with the spirit of Rome in those brave 
days of old : — 

" The beams of the rising sun had gilded the lofty domes 
of Carthage, and given, with its rich and mellow light, a tinge 
of beauty even to the frowning ramparts of the outer harbor. 
Sheltered by the verdant shores, a hundred triremes were riding 
proudly at their anchors, their brazen beaks glittering in the 
sun, their streamers dancing in the morning breeze, while 
many a shattered plank and timber gave evidence of desperate 
conflict with the fleets of Rome. 

" No murmur of business or of revelry arose from the city. 



REGULUS TO THE CARTHAGINIANS. 123 

The artisan had forsaken his shop; the judge his tribunal; the 
priest the sanctuary ; and even the stern stoic had come forth 
from his retirement to mingle with the crowd that, anxious 
and agitated, were rushing toward the Senate house, startled 
by the report that Regulus had returned to Carthage. 

" Onward, still onward, trampling each other under foot, 
they rushed, furious with anger, and eager for revenge. 
Fathers were there, whose sons were groaning in fetters ; 
maidens, whose lovers, weak and wounded, were 'dying in the 
dungeons of Rome ; and gray-haired men and matrons, whom 
the Roman sword had left childless. 

" But when the stern features of Regulus were seen, and 
his colossal form, towering above the ambassadors who had 
returned with him from Rome ; when the news passed from 
lip to lip that the dreaded warrior, so far from advising the 
Roman Senate to consent to an exchange of prisoners, had 
urged them to pursue, with exterminating vengeance, Carthage 
and the Carthaginians, the multitude swayed to and fro, like a 
forest beneath a tempest, and the rage and hate of that tumul- 
tuous throng vented itself in groans and curses, and yells of 
vengeance. But, calm, cold, and immovable as the marble 
walls around him, stood the Roman ; and he stretched out his 
hand over that phrenzied crown, with gestures as proudly 
commanding as though he still stood at the head of the 
gleaming cohorts of Rome. 

" The tumult ceased ; the curse, half uttered, died upon the 
lip ; and so intense was the silence, that the clanking of the 
brazen manacles upon the wrists of the captive fell sharp and 
full upon every ear in that vast assembly, as he addressed 
them : — 

"Ye doubtless thought — for ye judge of Roman virtue by 
your own — that I would break my plighted oath, rather than, 
returning, brook your vengeance. I might give reasons for 
this, in Punic comprehension, most foolish act of mine. I 
might speak of those eternal principles which make death for 
one's country a pleasure, not a pain. But, by great Jupiter ! 



124 HEROIC SACRIFICES. 

methinks I should debase myself to talk of such high things 
to you ; to you, expert in womanly inventions ; to you, well- 
skilled to drive a treacherous trade with simple Africans for 
ivory and gold ! If the bright blood that fills my veins, trans- 
mitted free from godlike ancestry, v/ere like that slimy ooze 
which stagnates in your arteries, I had remained at home, and 
broke my plighted oath to save my life. 

" I am a Roman citizen ; therefore have I returned, that ye 
might work your will upon this mass of flesh and bones, that 
I esteem no higher than the rags that cover them. Here, in 
your capital, do I defy you. Have I not conquered your 
armies, fired your towns, and dragged your generals at my 
chariot wheels, since first my youthful arms could wield a 
spear? And do you think to see me crouch and cower before 
a tamed and shattered Senate? The tearing of flesh and 
rending of sinews is but pastime, compared with the mental 
agony that heaves my frame. 

" The moon has scarce yet waned since the proudest of 
Rome's proud matrons, the mother upon whose breast I slept, 
and whose fair brow so oft had bent over me before the noise 
of battle had stirred my blood, or the fierce toil of war nerved 
my sinews, did, with fondest memory of bygone hours, entreat 
me to remain. I have seen her, who, when my country called 
me to the field, did buckle on my harness with trembling 
hands, while the tears fell thick and fast down the hard corselet 
scales — I have seen her tear her gray locks and beat her aged 
breast, as on her knees she begged me not to return to Car- 
thage; and all the assembled Senate of Rome, grave and 
reverend men, proffered the same request. . The puny tor- 
ments which ye have in store to welcome me withal shall be, 
to what I have endured, 'even as the murmur of a summer's 
brook to the fierce roar of angry surges on a rocky beach. 

" Last night, as I lay fettered in my dungeon, I heard a 
strange, ominous sound : it seemed like the distant march of 
some vast army, their harness clanging as they marched, when 
suddenly there stood by me Xanthippus, the Spartan general, 



A WIFE'S DEVOTION-. 125 

by whose aid you conquered me, and, with a voice low as 
when the solemn wind moans through the leafless forest, he 
thus addressed me : ' Roman, I come to bid thee curse, with 
thy dying breath, this fated city ; know that, in an evil moment, 
the Carthaginian generals, furious with rage that I had con- 
quered thee, their conqueror, did basely murder me. And 
then they thought to stain my brightest honor. But for this 
foul deed the wrath of Jove shall rest upon them here and 
hereafter.' And then he vanished. 

" And now, go, bring your sharpest torments. The woes I 
see impending over this guilty realm shall be enough to 
sweeten death, though every nerve and artery were a shooting 
pang. I die! but my death shall prove a proud triumph; and, 
for every drop of blood ye from my veins do draw, your own 
shall flow in rivers. Woe to thee, Carthage ! Woe to the 
proud city of the waters ! I see thy nobles wailing at the feet 
of Roman Senators! thy citizens in terror! thy ships in flames! 
I hear the victorious shouts of Rome ! I see her eagles glit- 
tering on thy ramparts. Proud city, thou art doomed ! The 
curse of God is on thee — a clinging, wasting curse. It shall 
not leave thy gates till hungry flames shall lick the fretted gold 
from off thy proud palaces, and every brook runs crimson to 
the sea." 



A WIFE'S DEVOTION. 

Sibilla was the wife of Robert, Duke of Normandy, eldest 
son of William the Conqueror. He was a prince of a gen- 
erous and noble spirit, and was tenderly beloved by his friends. 

Having been wounded by a poisoned arrow, the physicians 
declared that nothing could save him but the venom's being 
sucked from the wound by some one, whose life must fall a 
sacrifice. 

Robert disdained to save his own life by hazarding that of 
another ; but Sibilla did this in his sleep, and died to save her 
husband. Matilda Betham. 



126 



HEROIC SACRIFICES. 
THE BROKEN HEART. 



WASHINGTON IRVING. 




T is a common practice with those who have 
outlived the susceptibility of early feeling, or 
have been brought up in the gay heartless- 
ness of dissipated life, to laugh at all love 
stories, and to treat the tales of romantic 
passion as mere fictions of novelists and 
poets. My observations on human nature 
have induced me to think otherwise. They 
have convinced me that, however the surface 
of the character may be chilled and frozen by the cares of 
the world, or cultivated into mere smiles by the arts of 
society, still there are dominant fires lurking in the depths 
of the coldest bosom, which, when once enkindled, become 
impetuous, and are sometimes desolating in their effects. 
Indeed, I am a true believer in the blind deity, and go to the 
full extent of his doctrines. Shall I confess it? I believe in 
broken hearts, and the possibility of dying of disappointed 
love ! I do not, however, consider it a malady often fatal to 
my own sex ; but I firmly believe that it withers down many 
a lovely woman into an early grave. 

Man is the creature of interest and of ambition. His nature 
leads him forth into the struggle and bustle of the world. 
Love is but the embellishment of his early life, or a song piped 
in the intervals of the acts. He seeks for fame, for fortune, for 
space in the world's thought and dominion over his fellow- 
men. 

But a woman's whole life is a history of the affections. The 
heart is her world ; it is there her ambition strives for empire ; 
it is there her avarice seeks the hidden treasures. 

She sends forth her sympathies on adventure; she embarks 
her whole soul in the traffic of affection ; and, if shipwrecked, 
her case is hopeless, for it is a bankruptcy of the heart. 



THE BR OK EN HE A RT. 127 

To a man the disappointment of love may occasion some 
bitter pangs ; it wounds some feelings of tenderness ; it blasts 
some prospects of felicity ; but he is an active being ; he may 
dissipate his thoughts in the whirl of varied occupation, or may 
plunge into the tide of pleasure ; or, if the scene of dis- 
appointment be too full of painful associations, he can shift 
his abode at will, and taking, as it were, the wings of the 
morning, can " fly to the uttermost parts of the earth and be 
at rest." 

But woman's is comparatively a fixed or secluded, a medi- 
tative life. She is more the companion of her own thoughts 
and feelings ; and if they are turned to ministers of sorrow, 
where shall she look for consolation ? Her lot is to be wooed 
and won, and if unhappy in her love, her heart is like some 
strong fortress that has been captured, and sacked, and aban- 
doned, and left desolate. 

How many bright eyes grow dim ; how many soft cheeks 
grow pale ; how many lovely forms fade away into the 
tomb, and none can tell the cause that blighted their love- 
liness ! 

As the dove will clasp its wings to its side, and cover and 
conceal the arrow that is preying on its vitals, so is the nature 
of woman to hide from the world the pangs of wounded affec- 
tion. The love of a delicate female is always shy and silent. 
Even when fortunate, she scarcely breathes it to herself; but 
when otherwise, she buries it in the recesses of her bosom, and 
there lets it cower and brood among the ruins of her peace. 
With her the desire of her heart has failed ; the great charm 
of existence is at an end. She neglects all the cheerful exer- 
cises which gladden the spirits, quicken the pulses, and send 
the tide of life in healthful currents through the veins. Her 
rest is broken, the sweet refreshment of sleep is poisoned by 
melancholy dreams, " dry sorrow drinks her blood" until her 
enfeebled frame sinks under the slightest external injury. 
Look for her after a little while and' you find friendship weep- 
ing over her untimely grave, and wondering that one who but 



128 HEROIC SACRIFICES. 

lately glowed with all the radiance of health and beauty should 
so speedily be brought down to " darkness and the worm." 
You will be told of some wintry chill, some casual indisposi- 
tion that laid her low ; but no one knows the mental malady 
that previously sapped her strength, and made her so easy a 
prey to the spoiler. 

She is like some tender tree — the pride and beauty of the 
grove; graceful in its form, bright in its foliage, but with the 
worm preying at its heart. We find it suddenly withering 
when it should be most fresh and luxuriant. We see it droop- 
ing its branches to the earth and shedding leaf by leaf; until, 
wasted and perishing away, it falls, even in the stillness of the 
forest; and as we muse over the beautiful ruin, we strive in 
vain to recollect the blast or thunderbolt that could have 
smitten it with decay. 

I have seen many instances of women running to waste and 
self-neglect, and disappearing gradually from the earth, almost 
as if they had been exhaled to heaven; and have repeatedly 
fancied that I could trace their deaths through the various de- 
clensions of consumption, cold, debility, languor, melancholy, 
until I reached the first symptom of disappointed love. But 
an instance of the kind was lately told to me; the circum- 
stances are well-known in the country where they happened, 
and I shall but give them in the manner in which they were 
related. 

Every one must recollect the tragical story of young Emmet, 
the Irish patriot; it was too touching to be soon forgotten. 
During the troubles in Ireland he was tried, condemned and 
executed on a charge of treason. 

His fate made a deep impression on public sympathy. He 
was so young, so intelligent, so generous, so brave, so every 
thing that we are apt to like in a young man. His conduct 
under trial, too, was so lofty and intrepid. 

The noble indignation with which he repelled the charge of 
treason against his country, the eloquent vindication of his 
name, and his pathetic appeal to posterity, in the hopeless 



THE BROKEN HEART. 129 

hour of condemnation — all these entered deeply into every 
generous bosom, and even his enemies lamented the stern 
policy that directed his execution. 

But there was one heart whose anguish it would be im- 
possible to describe. In happier days and fairer fortunes he 
had won the affections of a beautiful and interesting girl, the 
daughter of a late celebrated Irish barrister. She loved him 
with the disinterested fervor of a woman's first and early love. 

When every worldly maxim arrayed itself against him, when 
blasted in fortune, and disgrace and danger darkened around 
his name, she loved him the more ardently for his sufferings. 
If, then, his fate could awaken the sympathy, even of his foes, 
what must have been the agony of her whose whole soul was 
occupied by his image ? 

Let those tell who have had the portals of the tomb suddenly 
closed between them and the being they most loved on earth ; 
— who have sat at its threshhold, as one shut out in a cold 
and lonely world, from whence all that was most lovely and 
loving had departed. 

But then the horrors of such a grave ! so frightful, so dis- 
honored. There was nothing for memory to dwell on that 
could soothe the pang of separation ; none of those tender, 
though melancholy circumstances that endear the parting 
scene; nothing to melt the sorrow into those blessed tears 
sent, like the dews of heaven, to revive the heart in the parting 
hour of anguish. 

To render her widowed situation more desolate, she had 
incurred her father's displeasure by her unfortunate attach- 
ment, and was an exile from the paternal roof. But could the 
sympathy and kind offices of friends have reached a spirit so 
shocked and driven in by horror she would have experienced 
no want of consolation, for the Irish are of quick and generous 
sensibilities. The most delicate and cherishing attentions 
were paid her by families of wealth and distinction. 

She was led into society, and they tried, by all kinds of 



130 HEROIC SACRIFICES. 

occupation and amusement, to dissipate her grief and wean her 
from the tragical story of her lover. But it was all in vain. 
There are some strokes of calamity that scathe and scorch the 
soul, that penetrate to the vital seat of happiness, and blast it, 
never again to put forth bud or blossom. She never objected 
to frequent the haunts of pleasure, but she was as much alone 
there as in the depth of solitude. 

She walked about in a sad reverie, apparently unconscious 
of the world around her. She carried with her an inward woe 
that mocked at all the blandishments of friendship, and 
" heeded not the song of the charmer, charm he never so 
wisely." 

The person who told me her story had seen her at a 
masquerade. There can be no exhibition of far-gone wretch- 
edness more striking and painful than to meet it in such a 
scene. To find it wandering like a spectre, lonely and joyless, 
where all around is gay; to see it out in the trappings of 
mirth, and looking so wan and woe-be-gone, as if it had tried 
in vain to cheat the poor heart into a momentary forgetfulness 
of sorrow. After strolling through the splendid rooms and 
giddy crowd, with an air of utter abstraction, she sat herself 
down on the steps of an orchestra, and looking about for some 
time, with a vacant air, that showed her insensibility to the 
gairish scene, she began to warble a little plaintive air. She 
had an exquisite voice; but on this occasion it was so simple, 
so touching, it breathed forth such a soul of wretchedness, 
that she drew a crowd, mute and silent, around her, and melted 
every one into tears. 

The story of one so true and tender could not but excite 
great interest in a country remarkable for enthusiasm. It 
completely won the heart of a brave officer, who paid his 
addresses to her, and thought that one so true to the dead 
could not but prove affectionate to the living. She declined 
his attentions, for her thoughts were irrecoverably engrossed 
by the memory of her former lover. 



THE BR OKEN HEAR T. 131 

He, however, persisted in his suit He solicited not her 
tenderness, but her esteem. He was assisted by her convic- 
tion of his worth, and her sense of her own destitute and 
dependent situation, for she was existing on the kindness of 
friends. In a word, he at length succeeded in gaining her 
hand, though with a solemn assurance that her heart was un- 
alterably another's. He took her with him to Sicily, hoping 
that a change of scene might wear out the remembrance of 
early woes. She was an amiable and exemplary wife, and 
made an effort to be a happy one, but nothing could cure the 
silent and devouring melancholy that had entered into her 
very soul. She wasted away, in a slow but hopeless decline, 
and at length sunk into the grave, the victim of a broken 
heart. 

It was on her that Thomas Moore, the distinguished Irish 
poet, composed the following lines : — 

She is far from the land where her young hero sleeps, 

And lovers are round her sighing ; 
But coldly she turns from their gaze, and weeps, 

For her heart in his grave is lying. 

She sings the wild songs of her dear native plains, 

Every note which he loved awaking — 
Ah, little they think, who delight in her strains, 

How the heart of the minstrel is breaking. 

He had lived for his love, for his country he died, 
They were all that to life had entwined him ; 

Nor soon shall the tears of his country be dried, 
Nor long will his love stay behind him ! 

O ! make her a grave where the sunbeams rest, 

When they promise a glorious morrow ; 
They'll shine o'er her sleep, like a smile from the west, 

From her own loved island of sorrow ! 



132 



HEROIC SACRIFICES. 
THE ROMAN SENTINEL. 




N the excavations made by the government 
authorities to restore the ancient city of 
Pompeii, the workmen discovered the bones 
of a Roman soldier in the sentry box at one of 
the city's gates. As rocks of shelter were near 
at hand, and escape from the volcano's fiery 
deluge thus rendered possible, the supposi- 
tion is that this brave sentinel chose to meet 
death rather than desert his post of duty. 
In his famous work, "The Last Days of Pompeii," Edward 
Bulwer Lytton gives a brief but vivid description of the situa- 
tion on that awful day in the year A. D. 79 : — 

" Day was turned into night, and light into darkness ; an 
inexpressible quantity of dust and ashes was poured out, 
deluging land and sea and air, and burying two entire cities, 
Herculaneum and Pompeii, while the people were sitting in the 
theatre. Such is Vesuvius ! 

"Amidst the other horrors, the mighty mountains cast up 
columns of boiling water. Blent and kneaded with the half- 
burning ashes, the streams fell like seething mud over the 
streets, in frequent intervals. And full where the priests of 
Isis had now cowered around the altars, on which they had 
vainly sought to kindle fires and pour incense, one of the 
fiercest of those deadly torrents, mingled with immense frag- 
ments of scoria, had poured its rage. Over the bended forms 
of the priests it dashed ; that cry had been of death — that 
silence had been of eternity ! The ashes, the pitchy stream, 
sprinkled the altars, covered the pavement, and half concealed 
the quivering corpses of the priests. 

" Meanwhile the streets were already thinned ; the crowd 
had hastened to disperse itself under shelter ; the ashes began 
to fill up the lower parts of the town ; but here and there you 
heard the steps of fugitives craunching them wearily, or saw 
their pale and haggard faces by the blue glare of the lightning, 



; THE NOBLEST KNIGHT OF SPAIN." 



133 



or the more unsteady glare of torches, by which they en- 
deavored to steer their steps. But ever and anon, the boiling 
water, or the straggling ashes, mysterious and gusty winds, 
rising and dying in a breath, extinguished those wandering 
lights, and with them the last living hope of those who bore 
them. 

" The air was now still for a few minutes ; the lamp from the 
gate streamed out far and clear; the fugitives hurried on — 
they gained the gate — they passed by the Roman sentry ; the 
lightning flashed over his livid face and polished helmet, but 
his stern features were composed even in their awe! He 
remained erect and motionless at his post. That hour itself 
had not animated the machine of the ruthless majesty of Rome 
into the reasoning and self-acting man. There he stood amidst 
the crashing elements ; he had not received the permission to 
desert his station and escape." 



"THE NOBLEST KNIGHT OF SPAIN." 





REGINALD HEBER. 



CAPTAIN of the Moorish hold, 

Unbar thy gates to me ! 
And I will give thee gems and gold 

To set Fernando free. 
For I a sacred oath have plight 

A pilgrim to remain, 
Till I return with Lara's knight, 

The noblest knight of Spain." 



''Fond Christian youth," the captain said, 
"Thy suit is soon denied ; 
Fernando loves a Moorish maid, 

And will with us abide. 
Renounced is every Christian rite ; 

The turban he hath ta'en ; 
And Lara thus hath lost her knight, 
The noblest knight of Spain." 



134 HEROIC SACRIFICES. 

Pale, marble pale, the pilgrim turned, 

A cold and deadly dye ; 
Then in his cheeks the blushes burned, 

And anger in his eye ; 
From forth his cowl a ringlet bright 

Fell down, of golden grain ; 
"Base Moor! to slander Lara's knight, 

The boldest knight of Spain ! 

"Go look on Lugo's gory field, 

Go look on Tayo's tide ! 
Can ye forget the red-cross shield, 

That all your host defied ? 
Alhama's warriors turned to flight, 

Granada's Sultan slain, 
Attest the worth of Lara's knight, 

The boldest knight of Spain." 

"By Allah yea!" with eyes of fire, 

The Lordly paynim said, 
"Granada's Sultan was my sire, 
Who fell by Lara's blade ; 
And though thy gold were forty fold. 

The ransom were but vain 
To purchase back thy Christian knight, 
The boldest knight of Spain ! " 

" Ah ! Moor, the life that once is shed, 

No vengeance can repay ; 
And who can number up the dead 

That fall in battle fray ? 
Thyself in many a manly fight 

Hast many a father slain ; 
Then rage not thus 'gainst Lara's knight, 

The boldest knight of Spain ! " 

"And who art thou, whose pilgrim vest 

Thy beauties ill may shroud — 
Thy locks of gold, the heaving breast — 

A moon beneath a cloud ? 
Wilt thou our Moorish creed recite, 

And here with me remain ? 
He may depart, that captive knight, 

The conquered knight of Spain." 



"THE NOBLEST KNIGHT OF SPAIN." 135 

"Ah, speak not so '! " with voice of woe, 

The shuddering stranger cried ; 
" Another creed I may not know, 
Nor live another's bride ! 
Fernando's wife may yield her life, 

But not her honor stain, 
To loose the bands of Lara's knight, 
The noblest knight of Spain." 

"And know'st thou, then, how hard the doom 

Thy husband may yet bear ? 
The fettered limbs, the living tomb, 

The damp and noisome air ? 
In lonely cave, and void of light, 

To drag a helpless chain, 
Thy pride condemns the Christian knight, 

The prop and pride of Spain." 

" Oh ! that within that dungeon's gloom 

His sorrows I might share, 
And cheer him in that living tomb 

With love, and hope, and prayer ! 
But still the faith I once have plight 

Unbroken must remain, 
And plead the cause of Lara's knight, 

The noblest knight of Spain." 

"And deem'st thou from the Moorish hold 
In safety to retire, 
Whose locks outshine Arabia's gold, 
Whose eyes the diamond's fire ! " 
She drew a poignard, small and bright, 
And spake in calm disdain — 
"He taught me how — my Christian knight — 
To guard the faith of Spain ! " 

The drawbridge falls ! with loud alarm 

The clashing portals fly ; 
She bared her breast — she raised her arm, 

And knelt, in act to die : 
But ah ! the thrill of wild delight 

That shot through every vein ! 
He stood before her — Lara's knight — 

The noblest knight of Spain ! 



136 HEROIC SACRIFICES. 

"TAKE THESE, FOR YOU WILL WANT THEM." 



MRS. E. F. ELLETT. 




HE long, arduous and eventful retreat of 
General Greene through the Carolinas, after 
the battle of the Cowpens, that retreat on 
whose issue hung the fate of the South — 
with the eager pursuit of Cornwallis, who 
well knew that the destruction of the army 
would secure his conquests — is a twice-told 
tale to every reader. 
The line of march lay through Salisbury, North Carolina ; 
and while the British commander was crossing the Catawba, 
Greene was approaching this village. With the American army 
were conveyed the prisoners taken by Morgan in the late 
bloody and brilliant action, the intention being to convey them 
to Virginia. Several of these were sick and wounded, and 
among them were some British officers, unable, from loss of 
strength, to proceed further on the route. 

General Greene, aware of the objects of Cornwallis, knew 
his design, by a hurried march to the ford, to cross the 
Catawba before opposition could be made, and had stationed 
a body of militiamen there to dispute the passage. Most 
anxiously did the General await their arrival before he pursued 
his route. The day gradually wore away, and still no signs 
appeared of the militia ; and it was not till after midnight that 
the news reached him of their defeat and dispersion by the 
British troops, and the death of General Davidson who had 
commanded them. His aids having been despatched to 
different parts of the retreating army, he rode on, with a heavy 
heart, to Salisbury. It had been raining during the day, and 
his soaked and soiled garments and appearance of exhaustion, 
as he wearily dismounted from his jaded horse at the door of 
the principal hotel, showed that he had suffered much from 



" TAKE THESE, FOR YOU WILL WANT THEM." 137 

exposure to the storm, sleepless fatigue, and harassing anxiety 
of mind. Dr. Reed, who had charge of the sick and wounded 
prisoners, while he waited for the General's arrival, was 
engaged in writing the paroles with which it was necessary to 
furnish such officers as could not go on. From his apartments 
overlooking the main street, he saw his friend, unaccompanied 
by his aids, ride up and alight, and hastened to receive him as 
he entered the house. Seeing him without a companion, and 
startled by his dispirited looks, the doctor could not refrain 
from noticing them with anxious inquiries, to which the 
wearied soldier replied : " Yes ; fatigued, hungry, alone and 
penniless!" The melancholy reply was heard by one deter- 
mined to prove, by the generous assistance proffered in a time 
of need, that no reverse could dim the pure flame of disin- 
terested patriotism. General Greene had hardly taken his seat 
at the well-spread table, when Mrs. Steele, the landlady of the 
hotel, entered the room and carefully closed the door behind 
her. 

Approaching the distinguished guest, she reminded him of 
the despondent words he had uttered in her hearing, implying, 
as she thought, a distrust of the devotion of his friends, 
through every calamity, to the cause. Money, too, she 
declared he should have, and drew from under her apron two 
small bags full of specie, probably the earnings of years. 
"Take these," she said, " for you will want them and I can do 
without them." 

Words of kindness and encouragement accompanied this 
offering of a benevolent heart, which General Greene accepted 
with thankfulness. 

" Never," says his biographer, " did relief come at a more 
propitious moment ; nor would it be straining conjecture to 
suppose that he resumed his journey with his spirits cheered 
and lightened by this touching proof of woman's devotion to 
the cause of her country." 

General Greene did not remain long in Salisbury ; but 
before his departure from the house of Mrs. Steele, he left a 



138 



HEROIC SACRIFICES. 



memorial of his visit. He took from the wall of one of the 
apartments a portrait of George III, which had come from 
England as a present from a person at court to one of Mrs. 
Steele's connections attached to an embassy, wrote, with chalk, 
on the back : " O, George ! hide thy face and mourn ;" and 
replaced it with the face to the wall. The picture, with the 
writing uneffaced, is still in possession of a granddaughter of 
Mrs. Steele, a daughter of Dr. McCorkle, and may be seen in 
Charlotte. 

Elizabeth Steele was distinguished not only for her attach- 
ment to the American cause during the war, but for her piety 
that shone brightly in her useful life. Among her papers 
was found, after her death, a written dedication to her 
Creator, and a prayer for support in the practice of Christian 
duty, with a letter, left as a legacy to her children, enjoining 
it upon them to make religion the great work of life. 



DEATH OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 




HE King sang, with his soldiers, Luther's 
grand hymn, " Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott," 
and then his own battle song, " Verzage 
nicht, du Hauflein klein ! " He addressed, 
first to the Swedes, then to the Germans, 
two of the noblest orations before a battle 
that history records. In an enthusiasm of 
heroism he threw off his cuirass, and cried: 
" God is my armor ! " Wallenstein was suffering from gout 
in the feet. Although his stirrups were thickly padded with 
silk, he could not ride, and took his place in a litter. He 
called his officers together, and gave them his orders, which 
were to fight chiefly on the defensive. Gustavus gave out the 
war cry, " Gott mit uns ! " Wallenstein gave to his troops as 
a battle cry " Jesus Maria ! " 



DEA TH OF G USTA VUS AD OLPHUS. 139 

About 1 1 o'clock, on the morning of November 6th, 1632, 
the mist cleared a little and the fiery King himself headed the 
attack upon the Imperialist lines and ditches. Gustavus, 
riding alone with his cousin, Duke Franz von Lauenburg; 
the page, Lubelfing, and a groom, stumbled upon an Imperial 
ambush. His horse, maddened by a bullet, threw its rider 
and fled. The King received a bullet in the arm and another 
shot in the back. The second shot was, as the Swedes main- 
tain, fired by Lauenburg, who left the King to his fate, rode 
away and afterward joined the Imperialist side. German 
historians speak doubtfully on the point, and the question of 
Lauenburg's treachery may be considered an open one. 

The Imperialist soldiers did not believe that the King could 
be alone with so small an escort. They, however, took 
Gustavus to be an officer of rank, until he cried out : " I am 
the King of Sweden, and seal with my blood the Protestant 
religion and the liberties of Germany. Alas ! my poor 
Queen!" The Imperialist soldiers then killed and stripped 
him, and the tide of battle rolled on past the dead body. 
The faithful page, who alone remained with Gustavus, tried 
vainly to mount the king upon his own horse. The poor lad 
died, five days afterward, in Naumburg, of his wounds. So 
fell Gustav Adolf. Lutzen was like a victory of Trafalgar 
with Nelson lost. His own side were startled when — 

" The loose rein dangling from his head, 
Housing and saddle bloody red," 

the king's horse rushed back into their lines. They did not 
know that he was dead ; they supposed him taken prisoner. 
A kind of sacred fury possessed the troops, and the spirit of 
Gustavus rendered them invincible. Wallenstein sustained an 
overhelming defeat, and before night was in full flight toward 
Leipsic. Herzog Bernhard remained in the field as victor of 
Lutzen. Wallenstein 's own baggage was pillaged by his own 
people. He had been grazed by a bullet, but was not hurt. 
He was believed to bear a charmed life, and the day of Lutzen 
strengthened the belief. The Imperialists lost many officers 



140 HEROIC SACRIFICES. 

of note. The gallent Pappenheim, the knightliest of Wallen- 
stein's commanders, and Coloredo were both killed. Piccolo- 
mini had five horses shot under him. Hoik, Terzky, Harrach 
and many others were severely wounded, but, apart from the 
greatness of the victory, the sadness of Liitzen was and remains 
the soldier's death of Gustav Adolf. Wallenstein rewarded 
highly and punished severely. He distributed 85,210 gulden 
among officers who had behaved well; but he executed as 
cowards eleven officers, by the sword, he hanged others, some 
had their swords broken by the hangman under the gallows, 
and the names of many were nailed in infamy on the gibbet. 
A Te Deum, on the first news of the battle, was performed in 
Vienna ; but Wallenstein, at least, knew certainly the magnitude 
of the defeat that he had suffered. — Nineteenth Century. 



CURFEW MUST NOT RING TO-NIGHT. 



ROSA HARTWICK THORPE. 



kNGLAND'S sun was slowly setting o'er the hills, so far 
away, 

J ^SmM FiUmg all the land with beauty, at the close of one sad day, 
' V «2^ rife j? And the last rays kiss'd the forehead of a man and maiden 

W feir ' 

^ He with steps so slow and weakened, she with sunny, fioat- 
.ff ing hair ; 

He with sad bowed head, and thoughtful, she with lips so 

cold and white, 
Struggling to keep back the murmur, " Curfew must not 
ring to-night." 

^t 9 "Sexton," Bessie's white lips faltered, pointing to the prison 
old, 
With its walls so dark and gloomy — walls so dark, and 
damp, and cold — 



CURFEW MUST NOT RING TO-NIGHT. 141 

" I've a lover in that prison, doomed this very night to die, 
At the ringing of the Curfew, and no earthly help is nigh. 
Cromwell will not come till sunset," and her face grew strangely 

white, 
As she spoke, in husky whispers, " Curfew must not ring to-night." 

" Bessie," calmly spoke the sexton — every word pierced her young heart 
Like a thousand gleaming arrows — like a deadly poisoned dart ; 

" Long, long years I've rung the Curfew from that gloomy, shadowed 
tower ; 
Every evening, just at sunset, it has told the twilight hour ; 
I have done my duty ever, tried to do it just and right, 
Now I'm old, I will not miss it ; girl, the Curfew rings to-night ! " 

Wild her eyes and pale her features, stern and white her thoughtful 

brow, 
And, within her heart's deep centre, Bessie made a solemn vow ; 
She had listened while the judges read, without a tear or sigh, 
" At the ringing of the Curfew — Basil Underwood must die." 
And her breath came fast and faster, and her eyes grew large and 

bright — 
One low murmur, scarcely spoken — " Curfew must not ring to-night ! " 

She with light step, bounded forward, sprang within the old church 

door, 
Left the old man coming slowly, paths he'd trod so oft before ; 
Not one moment paused the maiden, but, with cheek and brow aglow, 
Staggered up the gloomy tower, where the bell swung to and fro ; 
Then she climbed the slimy ladder, dark, without one ray of light, 
Upward still, her pale lips saying : " Curfew shall not ring to-night." 

She has reached the topmost ladder, o'er her hangs the great dark bell, 
And the awful gloom beneath her, like the pathway down to hell ; 
See, the ponderous tongue is swinging, 'tis the hour of Curfew now — 
And the sight has chilled her bosom, stopped her breath, and paled 

her brow. 
Shall she let it ring ? No, never ! her eyes flash with sudden light, 
As she springs and grasps it firmly — " Curfew shall not ring to-night ! " 

Out she swung, far out, the city seemed a tiny speck below ; 

There, 'twixt heaven and earth suspended, as the bell swung to and 

fro; 
And the half-deaf sexton ringing (years he had not heard the bell), 
And he thought the twilight Curfew rang young Basil's funeral knell; 



142 



HEROIC SACRIFICES. 



Still the maiden, clinging firmly, cheek and brow so pale and white, 
Stilled her frightened heart's wild beating — " Ctirfew shall not ring 
to-night." 

It was o'er — the bell ceased swaying, and the maiden stepped once 

more 
Firmly on the damp old ladder, where, for hundred years before, 
Human foot had not been planted ; and what she this night had 

done 
Should be told in long years after ; as the rays of setting sun 
Light the sky with mellow beauty, aged sires, with heads of white, 
Tell their children why the Curfew did not ring that one sad night. 

O'er the distant hills came Cromwell ; Bessie saw him, and her brow, 
Lately white with sickening terror, glows with sudden beauty now ; 
At his feet she told her story, showed her hands, all bruised and torn ; 
And her sweet young face, so haggard, with a look so sad and worn, 
Touched his heart with sudden pity — lit his eyes with misty light ; 
"Go, your lover lives!" cried Cromwell; "Curfew shall not ring 
to-night." 



DEMOSTHENES. 



E. S. CREASY. 




F all political characters," says the German 
historian, Heeren, " Demosthenes is the 
most sublime ; he is the purest tragic char- 
acter with which history is acquainted. 
When, still trembling with the vehement 
force of his language, we read his life in 
Plutarch, when we transfer ourselves into 
his times and his situation, we are carried 
away by a deeper interest than can be 
excited by any hero of the epic muse or of tragedy. From 
his first appearance, till the moment when he swallowed 
poison, in the temple, we see him contending against destiny, 
which seems to mock him with malignant cruelty. It throws 
him to the ground, but never subdues him. 



COURAGE AND OBEDIENCE. 



143 



"What a crowd of emotions must have struggled through 
his manly breast, amid this interchange of reviving and ex- 
piring hopes ! How natural was it that the lines of melan- 
choly and of indignation, such as we yet behold in his bust, 
should have been imprinted on his severe countenance ! It 
was his high calling to be the pillar of a sinking state. Thirty 
years he remained true to this cause, nor did he yield till he 
was buried beneath the ruins of his country." 

It was about the middle of the fourth century before our 
era, when Demosthenes began to command attention in the 
Athenian assemblies. His first attempt, like those of Walpole 
and Sheridan, in the British Parliament, was a failure ; and the 
derision which he received from the multitude would have 
discouraged an inferior spirit forever. It only nerved Demos- 
thenes to severer study, and to a more obstinate contest with 
his physical disadvantages. He assiduously practiced his 
growing powers as an advocate before the legal tribunals, 
before he again ventured to speak on State affairs. But, at 
length, he reappeared before the people, and the dominion of 
his genius was supreme. 



A NOBLE EXAMPLE OF COURAGE AND 
OBEDIENCE. 




HE hero of the incident so touchingly por- 
trayed in the following verses by the gifted 
Mrs. Hemans, was the ten-year old son of 
Captain Casabianca, the commander of the 
French Ship-of-the-line, L Orient, 120 guns. 
This vessel belonged to the French Mediter- 
ranean Squadron, which was attacked and 
annihilated in Aboukir Bay, by the English 
fleet, led by Nelson, August 1, 1798. 

The " Battle of the Nile," as it is now generally called, was 
one of the most terrific combats in the history of naval war- 
fare ; and a peculiar interest attaches itself to the fate of this 



144 HEROIC SACRIFICES. 

youthful hero by reason of the awful calamity that resulted in 
his death. 

Fighting commenced late in the afternoon, and raged with 
undiminished fury until nearly midnight. The Orient occupied 
a position in the centre of the French line of battle, and there- 
fore participated in the heaviest fighting on that memorable 
day. 

Young Casabianca had accompanied his father on this 
cruise to Africa, and on this particular occasion was directed 
to remain on duty at a certain place, while he— the father — 
hurried off to another part of the vessel to give orders. He 
promised to return, but soon after leaving his beloved boy, he 
was disabled, and about the same time the vessel took fire near 
the powder magazine. What next occurred, we will give in 
the words of a recent naval historian : — 

"At about ten o'clock the Orient blew up with a tremendous 
explosion, which served, for the time, to paralyze every one in 
both fleets. It must have been an awful sight, of which 
description would fall short ; for certainly, no vessel of such a 
size had blown up before, and none so large has blown up 
since. The shock of the explosion shook the ships to their 
very keelsons, opened their seams, and did considerable other 
injury. 

" After the explosion, it was full ten minutes until a gun 
was fired again. On both sides there was a sort of paralysis, 
and a waiting for what next was to occur ! " 

The boy stood on the burning deck, 

Whence all but he had fled ;- 
The flame that lit the battle's wreck 

Shone round him o'er the dead. 

Yet beautiful and bright he stood, 

As born to rule the storm ; 
A creature of heroic blood, 

A proud, though childlike form. 



COURAGE AND OBEDIENCE. 145 

The flames rolled on — he would not go 

Without his father's word ; 
That father, faint in death below, 

His voice no longer heard. 



He called aloud : " Say, father! say 

If yet my task is done ! " 
He knew not that the chieftain lay 

Unconscious of his son. 

" Speak, father ! " once again he cried, 
"If I may yet be gone ! " 
And but the booming shots replied, 
And fast the flames rolled on. 

Upon his brow he felt their breath, 

And in his waving hair, 
And looked from that lone post of death, 

In still, yet brave despair ; 

And shouted but once more, aloud, 

" My father ! must I stay ? " 
While o'er him fast, through sail and shroud, 
The wreathing fires made way. 

They wrapped the ship in splendor wild, 

They caught the flag on high, 
And streamed above the gallant child 

Like banners in the sky. 

There came a burst of thunder sound ; 

The boy — O, where was he ? 
Ask of the winds that far around 

With fragments strewed the sea, 

With mast and helm and pennon fair, 

That well had borne their part ; 
But the noblest thing which perished there 

Was that young, faithful heart ! 

Mrs. Felicia D. Hemans. 
10 



146 HEROIC SACRIFICES. 

THE DEVOTED WOMEN OF WEINSBURG. 




N the year 1 138, the Duke of Wittenberg 
warmly opposed the election of Conrad III, 
who was proclaimed emperor ; and when the 
new emperor had assumed the diadem, he 
refused to acknowledge him, and shut him- 
self up in the little city of Weinsburg. 

The angry emperor immediately laid siege 
to the place ; the garrison resisted his attacks 
with manly bravery, and only yielded to force 
and superior numbers. The conqueror, at first, determined to 
submit all to fire and sword ; but he relented in favor of the 
women, to whom he granted permission to depart, each carry- 
ing with her as much as she was able of what she most valued 
in the world. The wife of the Duke took advantage of this 
indulgence to save the life of her husband. She mounted him 
upon her shoulders, and all the women followed her example. 
When Conrad saw them going out loaded with this precious 
burden, and with the Duchess at their head, he could not 
maintain either his gravity or his anger against such a 
spectacle ; he pardoned the men for the sake of the women, 
and the city was saved. 

Which way to Weinsburg ? Neighbor, say ! 

"lis, sure, a famous city ; 
It must have cradled, in its day, 
Full many a maid of noble clay, 

And matrons wise and witty ; 
And if ever marriage should happen to me, 
A Weinsburg maid my wife shall be. 

King Conrad once, historians say, 

Fell out with this good city ; 
So down he came, one luckless day, 
Horse, foot, dragoons, in stern array, 

And cannon — more's the pity ! 
Around the walls the artillery roared, 
And bursting bombs their fury poured. 



THE DEVOTED WOMEN OF WEINSBURG. 147 

But naught the little town could scare : 

Then, red with indignation, 
He bade the herald straight repair 
Up to the gates, and thunder there 

The following proclamation : — 

"Rascals! when I your town do take, 

No living thing shall save its neck !" 

Now, when the herald's trumpet sent 

These tidings through the city, 
To every house a death knell went ; 
Such murder-cries the hot air rent. 

Might move the stones to pity. 
Then bread grew dear, and good advice 
Could not be had for any price. 

Then " Woe is me !" " O misery !" 

What shrieks of lamentation ! 
And " Kyrie Eleison !" cried 
The pastors, and the flock replied, 
" Lord, save us from starvation !" 
" O, woe is me, poor Corydon ! 
My neck! my neck ! I'm gone! I'm gone.'" 

Yet oft, when counsel, deed and prayer 

Had all proved unavailing, 
When hope hung trembling on a hair, 
How oft has woman's wit been there ! 

A refuge never failing ; 
For woman's wit and Papal fraud, 
Of olden time, were famed abroad. 

A youthful dame — praised be her name \ 

Last night had seen her plighted — 
Whether in waking hour or dream, 
Conceived a rare and novel scheme. 

Which all the town delighted ; 
Which you, if you think otherwise, 
Have leave to laugh at and despise. 

At midnight hour, when culverin, 

And gun and bomb were sleeping, 
Before the camp, with mournful mien, 
The loveliest embassy were seen, 

All kneeling low and weeping ! 



148 HEROIC SACRIFICES. 

So sweetly, plaintively they prayed, 
But no reply but this was made : — 

" The women have free leave to go, 
Each with her choicest treasure ; 
But let the knaves, their husbands, know 
That unto them the king will show 
The weight of his displeasure !" 
With these sad terms the lovely train 
Stole weeping to the camp again. 

But when the morning gilt the sky, 

What happened ? Give attention : 
The city gates wide open fly, 
And all the wives come trudging by, 

Each bearing — need I mention ? 
Her own dear husband on her back, 
All snugly seated in a sack ! 

Full many a sprig of Court, the joke 

Not relishing, protested, 
And urged the King ; but Conrad spoke : 
"A monarch's word must not be broke!" 

And there the matter rested, 
" Bravo !" he cried. "Ha! ha! Bravo! 
Our lady guessed it would be so !" 

He pardoned all, and gave a ball 

That night, at royal quarters ; 
The fiddles squeaked, the trumpets blew, 
And up and down the dancers flew, 

Court sprigs with city daughters ! 
The Mayor's wife — O, rarest sight ! — 
Danced with the shoemaker that night ! 

Ah, where is Weinsburg, sir, I pray ? 

'Tis, sure, a famous city ; 
It must have cradled in its day, 
Full many a maid of noble clay, 

And matrons wise and witty ; 
And if ever marriage should happen to me, 
A Weinsburg dame my wife shall be. 

Gottfried August Buerger. 
Translated by C. T. Brooks. 



THE LEAP OF CURTIUS. 
THE LEAP OF CURTIUS. 



149 




|f ARCUS CURTIUS was a legendary Roman 
hero, about the middle of the fourth cen- 
tury, B. C. The haruspices declared that 
an earthquake chasm in the Forum could 
be filled only by casting into it that on 
which the greatness of Rome depended. 
While every one was doubting as to the 
meaning of the declaration, Marcus Curtius 
presented himself, and proclaimed that Rome contained 
nothing more indispensable to her greatness than a valiant 
citizen fully accoutred for battle, and offered himself as a 
victim ; and having arrayed himself in complete armor, and 
mounting his war horse, he galloped into the abyss. Then 
the earth is said to have closed, and the Forum resumed its 
wonted aspect. The place of the chasm was ever after called 
Lacus Curtius. 

Within Rome's Forum, suddenly, a wide gap opened in a night, 
Astounding those who gazed on it — a strange, terrific sight ; 
In Senate all their sages met, and, seated in their chairs of state, 
Their faces blanched with deadly fear, debated long and late. 

A sign inimical to Rome they deemed it — a prognostic dire, 

A visitation from the gods, in token of their ire ; 

Yet how to have their minds resolved, how ascertain, in this their need, 

Beyond the shadow of a doubt, if this it were indeed. 

In silence brooded they awhile, unbroken by a single word, 
While from the capital without the lightest sounds were heard ! 
Then rose the eldest magistrate — a tall old man, with locks like snow, 
Straight as a dart, and with an eye that oft had quelled the foe. 

And thus, with ripe, sonorous voice, no note or tone of which did 

shake, 
Or indicate the wear of time, the aged Nestor spake : — 
" Fathers ! the Oracle is nigh ; to it then let us promptly send, 
And at the shrine inquire what this dread marvel doth portend. 



150 HEROIC SACRIFICES. 

"And if to Rome it augurs ill, then ask we, ere it be too late, 
How we may but avert the doom, and save the sacred State ; 
That State to every Roman dear, as dear as brother, friend or wife, 
For which each true-born son would give, if needful, even life. 

" For what, O fathers ! what were life apart from altar, hearth and home ? 
Yea, is not all our highest good bound up with that of Rome ? 
And now adjourn we for a space, till three full days have circled 

round, 
And on the morning of the fourth, let each one here be found." 

Then got they up, and gloomily, for such short interval, did part, 
For they were Romans, staunch and tried, and sad was every heart. 
The fourth day dawned, and when they met, the Oracle's response was 

known ; 
Something most precious in the chasm, to close it, must be thrown. 

But if ^/zclosed it shall remain, thereon shall follow Rome's decay, 
And all the splendor of her State shall pale and pass away'! 
Something most precious ! What the gift that may prevent the pending 

fate? 
What costly offering will the gods indeed propitiate ? 

While this they pondered, lo ! a sound of footsteps fell on every ear, 
And in their midst a Roman youth did suddenly appear ; 
Apollo's brow, a mien like Mars, in Beauty's mould he seemed new- 
made, 
As on his golden hair the sun with dazzling radiance played. 

'Tis Marcus Curtius ! Purer blood none there could boast, and none 

more brave ; 
There stands the youthful patriot, come, a Roman, Rome to save ! 
His own young life, he offers that, yea, volunteers himself to throw 
Within the cleft, to make it close, and stay the heavy woe ! 

And now, on horseback, fully armed, behold him, for the hour hath 

come ; 
The Roman guards keep watch and ward, and beat the muffled drum ! 
The consuls, proctors, soothsayers, within the Forum group around, 
Young Curtius in the saddle sits, there yawns the severed ground ! 

Each pulse is stayed ; he lifts his helm, and bares his forehead to the 

sky, 
And to the broad, blue heavens above upturns his flashing eye ! 



HEROISM IN E VER Y-DA V LIFE. 



151 



" O, Rome ! O country best beloved ! Thou land in which I first drew 
breath ! 
I render back the life thou gav'st, to rescue thee from death !" 

Then spurring on his gallant steed, a last and brief farewell he said, 
And leapt within the gaping gulf, which closed above his head /' ' 

George Aspinwall. 



HEROISM IN EVERY DAY LIFE. 




HE world knows nothing of its greatest men," 
is an old saying, and it comes near its realiza- 
tion in the following mournful episode. The 
hero of it was a young drug clerk. When 
the yellow fever broke out, in Savannah, 
several years ago, the whole force in the 
drug store where he was employed de- 
serted the post of danger and left the city. 
His friends, who lived in Augusta, sent word to him to 
come home, but he refused, and remained on duty until the 
proprietor of the store ordered him to close it. He then 
went to another apothecary shop in Savannah, and worked 
laboriously as prescription clerk. He was kept so busily en- 
gaged that he had little time for meals, no chance to change 
his clothes, and no opportunity for rest or amusement. His 
employer took the fever and died, although the boy nursed 
him faithfully. The cook took it, and he attended to her also, 
and she recovered. 

A young comrade was then taken ill, and the steadfast drug- 
gist nursed him and performed his duties in the store, night 
and day. His friend regained his health slowly, and then the 
clerk was himself seized with the fever, but as he was strong 
and cheerful, he sent word to his relatives that he had no fears. 
It was then his companion's turn to show the kind of stuff of 
which he was made; and the material turned out to be pure 
gold. He nursed his friend from day to day, keeping up con- 



152 HEROIC SACRIFICES. 

stant communication with his home, by telegraph, as long as 
the telegraph messengers could be persuaded to venture into 
the infected part of the town. His last dispatches were, "I 
will stick to him to the last," and, "I shall not sleep to-night." 
Both of the young men died that evening. Such steadfast 
courage and self-denial deserve more than a passing notice. 

We are likely to forget such unostentatious acts, because 
they occur in the ordinary walks of life, and yet they are no 
less worthy of our admiration than the most valiant deed of 
plumed knight or mailed warrior. — Anonymous. 



FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 



J. M. S. CARTER. 




HIS lady, so famed for her labors in reforming 
the sanitary condition of the British army, 
is the daughter of William Shore Nightin- 
gale, and was born at Florence, Italy, in 
1823. Nightingale was the name of Mr. 
Shore's grand-uncle, and had been assumed 
by him on inheriting his estates. Florence's 
grandfather, Hon. William Smith, was one 
of the members who supported Wilberforce in Parliament, in 
the abolition of West India slavery. 

From her very childhood, Miss Nightingale exhibited the 
most intense sympathy with suffering, and it is related of her, 
that, when a little girl, she heard that the gardener was going 
to kill a favorite dog because it had in some way hurt its leg 
so badly that he was afraid it would never be able to use it 
again ; and she went, with tears in her eyes, and begged him 
not to do so; then, carrying the poor dog home in her arms, 
she bathed and bandaged the wounded leg, so that in a few 
days the animal was as well as ever. As she grew up to 
womanhood, this tender sympathy for suffering humanity in- 



FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 153 

creased, and led her, in 1844, to turn her attention to the con- 
dition of hospitals. She visited and inspected hospitals, both 
civil and military, all over Europe, then studied with the Sisters 
of Charity, in Paris, the system of nursing carried on in that 
city, and, in 185 1, went into training as a nurse in the institu- 
tion of Protestant Deaconesses at Kaiserwerth, on the Rhine. 
On returning to England she put into complete working order 
the Sanitarium for Governesses, in connection with the London 
Hospital. In 1854, soon after the war with Russia broke out, 
Miss Nightingale offered to go to Scutari and organize a train- 
ing school for nurses. Her offer was at once accepted, and in 
company with her nurses, she left England, in October, arriv- 
ing at Constantinople, November 4th, on the eve of the battle 
of Inkermann, in time to receive the wounded into wards 
already containing two thousand three hundred patients. 

She soon saw that the bad sanitary arrangements of the 
hospitals were the main cause of the frightful mortality, and 
all her energies were bent to the removal of these, as well as 
the lessening of their effects. 

While in the Crimea she was prostrated with a fever, the 
result of continuous toil and anxiety, but she refused to leave 
her post, and on her recovery remained until Turkey was 
evacuated, in 1856. With her labors at Scutari all the world 
is familiar; so great was her devotion, that she has stood 
twenty hours at a stretch, in order to see that the wounded 
were comfortably provided for. The soldiers almost wor- 
shiped her; it is said one poor fellow kissed her shadow as it 
fell across his pillow ; and well they might, for many of them 
owed their lives to her tender care. But the price paid was the 
loss of her own health ; the physical and mental strain of those 
two years in the Crimea had been too much, and for years 
Miss Nightingale has been an invalid; yet, in her sick room 
she has continued — through the pen — her beneficent labors. 

In 1857 she furnished the "commissioners appointed to in- 
quire into the regulations affecting the sanitary condition of 
the British army," with a written evidence, expressing with 



154 HEROIC SACRIFICES. 

great force and clearness the important lesson of the Crimean 
war, which she terms a sanitary experience on a vast scale. 
The next year she published her " Notes on Hospitals," and 
also, "Notes on Nursing," an invaluable work which should 
be in every household. 

On her return from the Crimea, the Queen sent her an auto- 
graph letter of thanks and a costly diamond, while the soldiers, 
in their gratitude, offered to build her a monument, but she 
chose rather that an institution might be opened for the train- 
ing of nurses, for which object a fund was at once subscribed, 
the yearly interest of which amounts to about $7000. 

We honor Miss Nightingale for the decided stand she takes 
on the temperance question ; if every physician were to follow, 
it would do much toward abating the evils of intemperance. 
In a letter written to Lord Stanley, on the sanitary condition 
of the army in India, she says : — 

" The long-cherished idea as to the necessity of ardent spirits 
for the British soldier is thoroughly exploded. A man who 
drinks tea or coffee will do more work than a dram drinker, 
though considered sober." 

If on this verse of mine 

Those eyes shall ever shine 
Whereto sore-wounded men have looked for life, 

Think not that for a rhyme, 

Nor yet to fit the time, 
I name thy name — true victress of this strife ! 

But let it serve to say 

That, when we kneel to pray, 
Prayers rise for thee thine ear shall never know ; 

And that thy gallant deed, 

For God, and for our need, 
Is in all hearts, as deep as love can go, 

'Tis good that thy name springs 

From two of earth's fair things — 
A stately city and a soft-voiced bird ; 

'Tis well that in all homes, 

When thy sweet story comes, 
And brave eyes fill — that pleasant sounds be heard. 



THE SIEGE OF LE YD EN. 



155 



O voice ! in night of fear, 

As night's bird, soft to hear ; 
O great heart ! raised like city on a hill ; 

O watcher ! worn and pale, 

Good Florence Nightingale, 
Thanks, loving thanks, for thy large work and will ! 

England is glad of thee — 

Christ, for thy charity, 
Take thee to joy when hand and heart are still ! 

Edwin Arnold. 




THE SIEGE OF LEYDEN. 



LL along the track of history heroic deeds are 
recorded which stir the soul like the blast of a 
trumpet. Such a clarion note was sounded 
three hundred years ago, at Leyden, and its 
echoes have not yet died away. 

Phillip II claimed the right to do the think- 
ing for his subjects, and brought powerful 
reasons to support his propositions. The Em- 
pire of Spain was firmly held in the monarch's grasp ; with 
the inquisition as his weapon, and the wealth of the new 
world, and strong armies as his allies, surely the heretics 
would see the propriety of returning to the bosom of the 
Holy Roman Church. If even then they failed to fall into his 
line of thought, the whole of the Netherlands were to be laid 
waste with fire and sword. 

Philip had not counted the cost of his undertaking. True, 
the inhabitants of these " sand banks of the North Sea" were 
few in number and feeble in resources, compared with the 
mighty Spanish Empire. But they had brave hearts and 
lofty ideas of worshiping God according to conscience and the 
Bible, instead of bowing to tradition and the voice of their 
king. 

Leyden was besieged and sent forth a cry for help to 
William, Prince of Orange, the father of his country. From 



156 HEROIC SACRIFICES. 

whence could he bring aid ? The treachery of France — the 
awful massacre of Saint Bartholomew — had laid low all the 
bright expectations in that quarter. A disastrous campaign 
had annihilated his army ; his right-hand general and noble 
brother, Louis of Nassau, went into the fatal battle of Mooker- 
heyde and was seen no more. Germany failed him ; England 
was not to be relied on. His country lay prostrate and 
desolate at his feet. William the Silent did not despair ; his 
hope and trust were in God. He wrote to the citizens of 
Leyden that " the fate of their country and of unborn genera- 
tions would, in all human probability, depend on the issues 
about to be tried. Eternal glory would be their portion if they 
manifested a courage worthy of their race and of the sacred 
cause of religion and liberty." 

On the 26th of May, 1574, Valdez, the Spanish commander, 
led his thousands of soldiers before the walls of the beautiful 
city. It was situated amid fair fields, rescued from the ocean 
by the stern labor of Netherlanders. Leyden was not upon 
the sea, but the Prince " could send the sea to Leyden." He 
saw no hope for the beleaguered city except to break the 
dykes and to besiege the besiegers with the waves of the 
ocean. " Better a drowned land than a lost land," exclaimed 
the patriots, as they yielded up the treasures of their fruitful 
fields to the incoming waves. Leyden was about fifteen miles 
from the outer dyke. This was broken through, and a fleet 
of war vessels, manned by a few hundred veterans, going to 
death or victory, floated to an inner dyke, five miles from the 
city. From thence on Leyden was defended from the ocean 
by dyke within dyke, and one rampart after another was to be 
broken through. 

Meanwhile the long days of June, July and August had 
worn their weary hours away. The people were starving one 
by one, the work progressing slowly. William of Nassau, the 
brave author of the plan, lay at Rotterdam in a fever bordering 
on delirium. With an unfaltering trust in God and a heroic 
spirit, still the strain on his mind was more than the body 



THE SIEGE OF LEYDEN. 157 

could bear. Schemes for the relief of the suffering and pros- 
trate country were the subjects of his agonizing thoughts, and 
were the thorns in his pillow. No man to lift the burden for 
a little time until exhausted nature might rally. From his 
chamber, through his friends, he continued to send words of 
courage and cheer to the perishing people. 

An ancient ruined tower of unknown origin rose in the 
centre of the city. To this elevation the starving people went, 
seeking a glimpse of hope. A few faithless ones, who clung 
to the royal cause, tauntingly exclaimed, " Go up to the tower, 
ye beggars, . . and tell us if ye can see the ocean coming 
over the dry land to your relief! " And, day after day, did 
they go up to the ancient tower, with heavy heart and anxious 
eye, watching, hoping, praying, fearing, and at last almost 
despairing of relief by God or man. Other ramparts were 
broken through, and the fleet advanced slowly toward the city 
walls. 

Pestilence and starvation, hand in hand with untold horrors, 
marched through the doomed city; the inhabitants fell by 
thousands, and yet men and women heroically resisted all 
appeals to surrender. 

" As well," shouted the Spaniards in derision, " as well can 
the Prince of Orange pluck the stars from the sky as bring 
the ocean to the wall of Leyden for your relief." 

But Leyden had reached the sublimity of despair; rather 
than yield to Spain, the citizens would set fire to the city and 
all perish in the flames. 

The 28th of September a carrier-dove brought the joyful 
tidings of the situation of the fleet, and the assurance of relief 
in a few days at most. The bells rang out the joyful news. 
But in the morning the wind was unfavorable, and the water 
sinking, instead of rising. The Admiral was bordering on 
despair ; unless the spring-tide," with " a strong and favorable 
wind," should come speedily to their aid all these labors were 
in vain. 

But the tempest did come, " a violent equinoctial gale, on 



158 HEROIC SACRIFICES. 

the nights of the first and second of October," sent the ocean 
waves dashing furiously " across the ruined dykes." 

A fine naval battle, in the darkness of the night, followed, 
as the fleet came sweeping over the rising waters. The routed 
Spaniards fled to a strong fortress ; there entrenched, they still 
held the city, and the brave patriots were again on the verge 
of despair. 

A night of thick darkness, " filled with anxiety to the 
Spaniard, to the armada, to Leyden," succeeded. At morn- 
ing's dawn a desperate assault was to be made on the fortress. 
In the fort all was still — had the enemy entered the city ? Was 
relief too late ? 

No, panic-stricken, the army of Spain had fled under cover 
of the darkness. They could withstand armed foes, but the 
terrors of the ocean, led on by the tempest, filled them with 
dismay. 

The morning of the 3d of October looked upon a delivered 
city. The worn, emaciated people gladly welcomed friends 
and food. 

Nearly every man, woman and child joined in the grand 
procession to the great church. The starving and heroic city, 
which had been so firm in its resistance to an earthly king, 
now bent itself in humble gratitude before the King of kings. 
After prayers, the whole congregation joined in the thanks- 
giving hymn. Thousands of voices raised the song, but few 
were able to carry it to its conclusion, for the universal emo- 
tion, deepened by the music, became too full for utterance. 
The hymn was abruptly suspended, while the multitude wept 
like children." 

In this terrible siege, Philip might have seen how deep in 
the very nature of the Netherlands lay the principle of liberty. 
They could die, but not yield to tyranny ; yet a long and des- 
perate struggle followed, before the king and empire learned 
the lesson. On the fourth of October, the day after the city 
was relieved, the wind changed, and again came the strong 
breath of the tempest. The ocean had accomplished its mis- 



A VALIANT SULIOTE. 



159 



sion, and he who holds the waves in the hollow of his hand, 
swept them back. Soon the land was bare, and the dykes 
began to be repaired. 

The next February, the city was radiant with flowers and 
gladness. A joyous procession marched through its streets 
in triumph ; with elaborate and allegorical ceremonies, the 
University of Leyden, destined to be so famous, was then 
founded. Thus, an institution of learning became a living 
monument to the heroism of the citizens, in the renowned 
siege of Leyden. — Chicago Standard. 



A VALIANT SULIOTE. 




JARCO BOZZARIS was a Greek patriot, born 
about 1790. On the night of August 19th, 
1 823, he attacked the camp of the Pasha of 
Scutari, who was advancing toward Misso- 
longhi, at the head of a considerable army. 
He fought his way, with 350 Suliote soldiers, 
into the midst of the camp, near Carpenisi, 
but was mortally wounded by a shot in the 
face, while spreading carnage around him. He was borne 
from the battle field, after the victory, on the shoulders of a 
relative, and died soon after. His last words were : " Could 
a Suliote leader die a nobler death ? " He was no less re- 
markable for modesty than for patriotism and bravery. So 
highly has the following beautiful poem, by Fitz-Greene 
Halleck, an American, been esteemed by the Greeks, that it 
has been translated into their language : — 

At midnight, in his guarded tent, 

The Turk lay, dreaming of the hour 
When Greece, her knee in suppliance bent, 

Should tremble at his power. 
In dreams, through camp and court he bore 
The trophies of a conqueror ; 



160 HEROIC SACRIFICES. 

In dreams, his song of triumph heard ; 
Then wore his monarch's signet-ring ; 
Then pressed that monarch's throne — a king; 
As wild his thoughts, and gay of wing, 

As Eden's garden bird. 

At midnight, in the forest shades, 

Bozzaris ranged his Suliote band, 
True as the steel of their tried blades, 

Heroes in heart and hand. 
There had the Persian's thousands stood, 
There had the glad earth drunk their blood, 

In old Plataea's day; 
And now, there breathed that haunted air 
The sons of sires who conquered there, 
With arms to strike, and soul to dare, 

As quick, as far as they. 

An hour passed on ; the Turk awoke ; 

That bright dream was his last ; 
He woke to hear his sentries shriek, 
" To arms ! They come — the Greek ! the Greek ! " 
He woke to die 'mid flame and smoke, 
And shout, and groan, and sabre-stroke, 

And death- shots falling thick and fast 
As lightnings from the mountain-cloud, 
And heard, with voice as trumpet loud, 

Bozzaris cheer his band : — 
" Strike — till the last armed foe expires ! 
Strike — for your altars and your fires ! 
STRIKE — for the green graves of your sires, 

God, and your native land ! " 

They fought, like brave men, long and well ; 

They piled the ground with Moslem slain ; 
They conquered ; but Bozzaris fell, 

Bleeding at every vein. 
His few surviving comrades saw 
His smile, when rang their proud hurra, 

And the red field was won ; 
Then saw, in death, his eyelids close, 
Calmly, as to a night's repose, 

Like flowers at set of sun. 



A VALIANT SULIOTE. 161 

Come to the bridal chamber, Death ! 

Come to the mother when she feels, 
For the first time, her firstborn's breath ! 

Come when the blessed seals 
That close the pestilence are broke, 
And crowded cities wail its stroke ! 
Come in consumption's ghastly form, 
The earthquake's shock, the ocean-storm ! 
Come when the heart beats high and warm, 

With banquet, song, and dance, and wine ! 
And thou art terrible : the tear, 
The groan, the knell, the pall, the bier, 
And all we know, or dream, or fear 

Of agony, are thine. 
But to the hero, when his sword 

Has won the battle for the free, 
Thy voice sounds like a prophet's word ; 
And in its hollow tones are heard 

The thanks of millions yet to be. 

Bozzaris ! with the storied brave 

Greece nurtured in her glory's time, 
Rest thee ! there is no prouder grave, 

Even in her own proud clime. 
She wore no funeral weeds for thee, 

Nor bade the dark hearse wave its plume, 
Like torn branch from death's leafless tree, 
In sorrow's pomp and pageantry, — 

The heartless luxury of the tomb. 
But she remembers thee as one 
Long loved, and for a season gone ; 
For thee her poet's lyre is wreathed, 
Her marble wrought, her music breathed; 
For thee she rings the birthday bells ; 
Of thee her babes' first lisping tells. 

For thine her evening prayer is said 
At palace couch, and cottage bed ; 
Her soldier, closing with the foe, 
Gives, for thy sake, a deadlier blow ; 
His plighted maiden, when she fears 
For him, the joy of her young years. 
Thinks of thy fate, and checks her tears. 
II 



162 



HEROIC SACRIFICES. 



And she, the mother of thy boys, 
Though in her eye and faded cheek 
Is read the grief she will not speak — 

The memory of her buried joys. 
And even she who gave thee birth, 
Will, by their pilgrim -circled hearth, 
Talk of thy doom without a sigh ; 
For thou art Freedom's now and Fame's- 
One of the few, the immortal names, 

That were not born to die. 



LADY GODIVA. 



ALFRED TENNYSON. 




^AVE you ever heard of Coventry, an old 
town not very far from London, where some 
of the streets are so narrow that no wagons 
can pass through them, and where the 
second stories of the quaint old mansions 
jut over so far into the streets that they 
almost touch each other ? 

Here once lived a sweet and beautiful 
lady, about whom the people never tire of telling you. 

She was the wife of an Earl who governed Coventry. He 
was immensely rich, but he taxed his subjects so that petitions 
came in, every day, to have them lowered. Finally, as all their 
beseeching did no good, the poor people came to his wife, 
Lady Godiva, to beg her to intercede for them. Her heart was 
touched, and she went to her husband, but he was angry, and 
bade her never speak of it again. 

Several months went by. He had been away to some wars 
in the northern part of England, and, coming home, was so 
delighted to meet his wife and darling little boy, that he clasped 
them both to his heart, asking her if she needed anything to 
complete her happiness. She had money, an elegant home, 



LAD Y G ODIVA. 163 

and lived like a queen, but she could not be happy. She said, 
" While our people groan under oppression, the most luxu- 
rious entertainment can afford me no real enjoyment." 

Leofric, her husband, again became violently angry, but said, 
since he had promised to do what she wished, he would keep 
his word, but she must ride on horseback, at noonday, from 
one end of the city to the other, with no clothing upon her. 
He supposed, of course, that she would never consent to this. 
For a moment, her noble, womanly heart sank within her, and 
then she said, " I will go." 

Her mind was made up, and she ordered all the people to 
darken the fronts of their houses, and retire to the back parts 
of them, while she took her lonely ride. When the appointed 
day came, the whole city was as still as death. Lady Godiva's 
beautiful white horse was brought to the palace. With a face 
as blanched as her charger, drawing her long dark hair like a 
scarf about her body, she mounted, and rode in solemn silence 
through all the principal streets. No sound was heard save 
that of the horse's hoofs, as the grateful people waited for their 
burdens to be lifted. 

And when the ride was over, and the people opened their 
doors and unbarred their windows, a great cry of rejoicing 
went up from thousands, for Coventry was free. Lady Godiva, 
after founding several churches, died, about the year 1059. 

Every three or four years, in Coventry, a quaint procession 
still takes place in honor of this noble act of devotion to her 
people. The City Guard and High Constable lead the column. 
Then follows a beautiful woman, clothed in a white linen dress, 
fitted close to her body, with long hair floating about her, and 
a large bunch of flowers in her hand, riding on a cream-colored 
horse. On either side of her are two city officials, dressed in 
green and scarlet. Two men come next, bearing the sword 
and mace, emblems of the high authority of the mayor, fol- 
lowed by the mayor himself, in his scarlet robes, trimmed with 
fur, wearing a cocked hat, and carrying a white wand in his 
hand. Then come the sheriffs, in their black gowns ; all the 



164 HEROIC SACRIFICES. 

different trades of the city, the Odd Fellows, Foresters, and 
other benevolent societies. 

The principal characters of the show are attended by beau- 
tiful children in costly habits, riding on horseback. These 
children are so small that they are obliged to sit in basket- 
work seats, which are fastened to the horses' backs. The 
men who lead the horses walk without their coats, and are 
decorated with a profusion of ribbons. — Wide Awake. 

Not only we, the latest seed of Time, 

New men, that in the flying of a wheel 

Cry down the past ; not only we, that prate 

Of rights and wrongs, have loved the people well, 

And loathed to see them overtax'd ; but she 

Did more, and underwent, and overcame, 

The woman of a thousand summers back, 

Godiva, wife to that grim Earl, who ruled 

In Coventry ; for when he laid a tax 

Upon his town, and all the mothers brought 

Their children clamoring, "If we pay, we starve ! " 

She sought her lord, and found him, where he strode 

About the hall, among his dogs, alone, 

His beard a foot before him, and his hair 

A yard behind. She told him of their tears, 

And pray'd him, " If they pay this tax, they starve." 

Whereat he stared, replying, half-amazed, 

" You would not let your little finger ache 
For such as these? " " But I would die," said she. 
He laughed, and swore by Peter and by Paul, 
Then fillip'd at the diamond in her ear ; 

" O, ay, ay, ay, you talk ! " "Alas ! " she said, 

"But prove me what it is I would not do." 
And from a heart as rough as Esau's hand, 
He answer'd, " Ride you, naked, thro' the town, 
And I repeal it ;" and nodding, as in scorn, 
He parted, with great strides, among his dogs. 

So, left alone, the passions of her mind, 

As winds from all the compass shift and blow, 

Made war upon each other in an hour, 

Till pity won. She sent a herald forth, 

And bade him cry, with sound of trumpet, all 

The hard condition ; but that she would loose 



LAD Y GODIVA. 165 

The people ; therefore, as they loved her well, 
From then, till noon, no foot should pace the street, 
No eye look down, she passing ; but that all 
Should keep within, door shut and window barr'd. 

Then fled she to her inmost bower, and there 
Unclasp'd the wedded eagles of her belt, 
The grim Earl's gift ; but ever at a breath 
She linger'd, looking like a summer moon 
Half-dipt in cloud ; anon she shook her head, 
And shower' d the rippled ringlets to her knee ; 
Unclad herself in haste ; adown the stair 
Stole on ; and, like a creeping sunbeam, slid 
From pillar unto pillar, till she reach'd 
The gateway ; there she found her palfrey trapt 
In purple, blazon'd with armorial gold. 

Then she rode forth, clothed on with chastity ; 
The deep air listened round her as she rode, 
And all the low wind hardly breathed, for fear 
The little, wide-mouthed heads upon the spout 
Had cunning eyes to see ; the barking cur 
Made her cheek flame ; her palfrey's footfall shot 
Like horrors through her pulses ; the blind walls 
Were full of chinks and holes ; and overhead 
Fantastic gables, crowding, stared ; but she 
Not less thro' all bore up, till, last, she saw 
The white-flower'd elder-thicket from the field 
Gleam thro' the gothic archway in the wall. 

Then she rode back, clothed on with chastity ; 

And one low churl, compact of thankless earth, 

The fatal byword of all years to come, 

Boring a little auger-hole, in fear, 

Peep'd — but his eyes, before they had their will, 

Were shrivel'd into darkness in his head, 

And dropt before him ; so the Powers, who wait 

On noble deeds, cancel'd a sense misused ; 

And she, that knew not, pass'd, and all at once, 

With twelve great shocks of sound, the shameless noon 

Was clash'd and hammer'd from a hundred towers, 

One after one ; but even then she gain'd 

Her bower; whence, reissuing, rob'd and crown'd, 

To meet her lord, she took the tax away, 

And built herself an everlasting name. 



166 



HEROIC SACRIFICES. 
A TRUE HERO. 



DINAH MULOCH CRA1K. 




T is said that "simple duty has no place for 
fear," and this seems to have been exempli- 
fied in the following mournful occurrence : 
On the 2 2d of June, 1861, there was a great 
fire in London, England. James Braidwood, 
the chief fireman, fearlessly ventured into a 
burning warehouse to encourage his men 
and to fight the flames to better advantage, 
when suddenly the huge walls toppled and 
fell, killing him instantly. Duty was more to him than life. 

Not at the battle front, writ of in story, 
Not on the blazing wreck, steering to glory, 
Not while in mortal pangs soul and flesh sever, 
Died he, this hero new — hero forever! 

No pomp poetic crowned, no forms enchained him ; 
No friends, applauding, watched, no foes arraigned him ; 
Death found him there, without grandeur or beauty — 
Only an honest man, doing his duty ! 

Just a God-fearing man, simple and lowly, 
Constant at kirk and hearth, kindly and lowly ; 
Death found and touched him with finger, in flying, 
So he rose up complete — hero undying. 

All now lament him — lovingly raise him 
Up from his life obscure, chronicle, praise him ; 
Tell his last act, done midst peril appalling, 
And the last words of cheer from his lips falling. 

So many a hero walks daily beside us, 
Till comes the hour supreme, sent to divide us, 
Then the Lord calls his own, like this man, even. 
Carried Elijah-like, fire-winged, to heaven ! 



8 \*\ 



i » innn < 



P^T III. 

YaL!A[n1T £xpLOITS. 







" My hour at last is come, 
But not ingloriously or passively 
I die, but first will do some valiant deed 
Of which mankind shall hear in after-time." 

— Homer. 



PART III. 



VALIANT EXPLOITS. 



THE MAID OF SARAGOSSA. 




F the few cities that succeeded in holding out 

against Napoleon, on the occasion of his 

first attempt to seize the Spanish Crown, 

Saragossa claims to hold the foremost rank. 

The inhabitants, without distinction of age, 

sex or calling, fought and fell in its defence, 

and history has rewarded their patriotism by 

chronicling deeds such as Homer sung. 

Wellington had not yet quitted England for the field that 

was to make him famous, and on which he was to earn some 

of his proudest titles, when a French army, commanded by 

Desnouettes, advanced on Saragossa. 

The siege may be said to have actually commenced on the 
14th of July, 1808, a siege deservedly more memorable than 
others, from the fact of the city being unfortified, or nearly so, 
a brick wall constituting its only defence. Many years pre- 
viously, a writer, alluding to its want of fortification, observed 
that "this defect was repaired by the bravery of its 
inhabitants." 

And they proved themselves not unworthy of encomiums 
like this, for never was greater daring or more heroism 
shown than by its gallant defenders. Palafox, under whose 
orders the defence was conducted, displayed an ability unusual 

169 



170 VALIANT EXPLOITS. 

amongst the Spanish generals at that time ; and greatly con- 
tributed, by the judiciousness of his measures, to hold the 
enemy in check. 

An attempt was made by the French, the day following the 
investment, to storm the city ; but they were beaten back with 
much loss, and forced to regain their works. Allowing a few 
days to intervene, they again advanced to the assault ; but the 
Spaniards, elated at their first success, fought with a courage and 
tenacity that baffled every attempt of the enemy. Desnouettes, 
mad with rage at being thus foiled, overwhelmed the place 
with a perfect storm of shells, the havoc from which was fear- 
ful, not a single building in the city being bomb-proof. Then 
was shown the heroism of the inhabitants. 

No one thought of surrendering, but all were animated by a 
warlike spirit. " They tore down the awnings from the win- 
dows and formed them into sacks, which they filled with sand, 
and piled up before the gates to serve as a battery, digging 
round it a deep trench. They broke holes in the walls and 
intermediate buildings for musketry, and stationed cannon 
where the position was favorable for it. Women of all ranks 
assisted; they formed themselves into companies — some to 
relieve the wounded ; some to carry water, wine and provisions 
to those who defended the gates. 

" The Countess Burita instituted a corps for this service ; she 
was young, delicate and beautiful. In the midst of the most 
tremendous fire of shot and shells, she was seen coolly attend- 
ing to those occupations which had now become her duty; 
nor throughout the whole of a two months' siege, did the 
imminent danger to which she incessantly exposed herself 
produce the slightest apparent effect upon her, or in the 
slightest degree divert her from her heroic purpose. 

" But great and noble as was the, example set by this gently- 
nurtured lady, still another act of devotion claims our atten- 
tion — one that has inspired painters and been the poet's theme. 
When the fire from the French lines was most severe, a 
battery that had been erected by the besieged in an exposed 



THE MAID OF SARAGOSSA. 171 

position, suffered greatly from its effects. Nearly every man 
that served the pieces was either killed or disabled. Suddenly 
a woman rushed forward, over the dead and dying, snatched a 
match from the hand of a dead artilleryman, and fired off a six- 
and-twenty pounder; then jumping upon the gun, made a 
solemn vow never to quit it alive during the siege." The heroine 
was Augustina Saragossa, a young girl belonging to a family 
of the common people, who thus braved the fire of the enemy, 
and rallied her countrymen by the courage she displayed. 

It is said her lover was among the fallen, and that it was his 
place she took, determined to avenge him. Throughout the 
whole of the siege she appeared to bear a charmed life. Even 
in the most exposed situation, she urged her companions, by 
her example, to great deeds, and escaped unharmed, though 
she eventually fell into the hands of the French, as a prisoner. 

" Ye who shall marvel when ye hear her tale, 
Oh ! had you known her in her softer hours, 

Mark'd her black eye that mocks her coal-black veil, 
Heard her light, lively tones in lady's bower, 
Seen her long locks that foil the painter's power, 

Her fairy form, with more than female grace, 
Scarce would you deem that Saragossa's tower 

Beheld her smile in Danger's gorgon face, 

Thin the closed ranks, and lead in Glory's fearful chase. 

" Her lover sinks — she sheds no ill-timed tear ; 

Her chief is slain — she fills his fatal post ; 
Her fellows flee — she checks their base career ; 

The foe retires — she heads the sallying host : 

Who can appease, like her, a lover's ghost ? 
Who can avenge, so well, a leader's fall ? 

What maid retrieve when man's flushed hope is lost ? 
Who hang so fiercely on the flying Gaul, 
Foiled by a woman's hand before a battered wall ?" 

Such were the exploits of the Maid of Saragossa, who, by 
her valor, elevated herself to the highest rank of heroines. 
When the author was at Seville, she walked daily on the 
Prado, decorated with medals and orders, by command of the 
Junta. Lord Byron. 



172 



VALIANT EXPLOITS. 
HEROIC AMERICANS. 




AYAL is a town on an island of the same 
name, one of the Azores group, lying 
west of and belonging to Portugal. It 
has a very fine harbor, and for this reason 
is very much visited by ships of all 
nations for purposes of refitting, making 
repairs, obtaining water, etc. 

The heroic defence of the " General 
Armstrong," when attacked by an overpowering British fleet 
in this neutral port, deserves to be ranked with that of Leoni- 
das and his Spartan band. In the account given below, no 
one can claim that unmerited praise was bestowed on the 
Americans, since the writer was an Englishman, a resident of 
Fayal. The letter was addressed to the celebrated William 
Cobbett, of London, England. It is dated, " Fayal, October 
15th, 1814." 

The American privateer brig, " General Armstrong," of 
New York, Captain Samuel C. Reid, of seven guns and ninety 
men, entered here on the 26th ultimo, about noon, seventeen 
days from that place, for the purpose of obtaining water. The 
captain, seeing nothing on the horizon, was induced to anchor. 
Before the lapse of many hours, His Majesty's brig, " Carna- 
tion" came in and anchored near her. 

About six, His Majesty's ship " Plantagenet," of seventy- 
four guns, and the " Rota" frigate came in and anchored also. 
The captain of the privateer and his friends consulted the first 
authorities here about her security. They all considered her 
perfectly secure, and that His Majesty's officers were too well 
acquainted with the respect due to a neutral port to molest 
her. But to the great surprise of every one, about nine in the 
evening, four boats were despatched, armed and manned, from 
His Majesty's ships, for the purpose of cutting her out. It 
being about the full of the moon, the night perfectly clear and 



HEROIC AMERICANS. 173 

calm, we could see every movement made. The boats 
approached rapidly toward her, when, it appears, the captain 
of the privateer hailed them, and told them to keep off, several 
times. They, notwithstanding, pushed on, and were in the act 
of boarding before any defence was made from the privateer. 
A warm contest ensued on both sides. The boats were finally 
dispersed, with great loss. 

The American, now calculating on a very superior force 
being sent, cut his cables and rowed the privateer close in 
alongside of the fort, within a half-cable's length, where he 
moored her, head and stern, with four lines. The Governor 
now sent a remonstrance to Captain Lloyd, of the " Planta- 
genet," against such proceedings, and trusted that the privateer 
would not be further molested ; she being in the Dominion of 
Portugal, and under the guns of the Castle, was entitled to 
Portuguese protection. 

Captain Lloyd's answer was that he was determined to 
destroy the vessel, at the expense of all Fayal ; and should any 
protection be given her by the fort, he would not leave a house 
standing in the village. All the inhabitants were gathered 
about the walls, expecting a renewal of the attack. At mid- 
night fourteen launches were discovered to be coming in rota- 
tion, for the purpose. When they got within clear gunshot, a 
tremendous and effectual discharge was made from the 
privateer, which threw the boats into confusion. They now 
returned a spirited fire, but the privateer kept up so continual 
a discharge it was almost impossible for the boats to make any 
progress. They finally succeeded, after an immense loss, in 
getting alongside of her, and attempted to board at every 
quarter, cheered by the officers, with a shout of " no quarter!" 
which we could distinctly hear, as well as their shrieks and 
cries. The termination was near about a total massacre. 

Three of the boats were sunk, and but one poor solitary 
officer escaped death in a boat that contained fifty souls ; he 
was wounded. The Americans fought with great firmness ; 
some of the boats were left without a single man to row them ; 



174 VALIANT EXPLOITS. 

others with three or four ; the most that any one returned was 
about ten. Several boats floated on shore full of dead bodies. 

With great reluctance I state that they were manned with 
picked men and commanded by the first, second, third and 
fourth lieutenants of the " Plantagenet ;" first, second, third 
and fourth ditto of the frigate, and the first officers of the brig, 
together with a great number of midshipmen. Our whole 
force exceeded four hundred men ; but three officers escaped, 
two of which were wounded. This bloody and unfortunate 
contest lasted about forty minutes. 

After the boats gave out, nothing more was attempted till 
daylight next morning, when the " Carnation" hauled alongside 
and engaged her. The privateer still continued to make a 
most gallant defence. These veterans reminded me of Law- 
rence's dying words, of the " Chesapeake," " Don't give up the 
ship !" The " Carnation" lost one of her topmasts and her 
yards were shot away ; she was much cut up in the rigging, 
and received several shots in her hull. This obliged her to 
haul off to repair and to cease firing. 

The Americans, now finding their principal gun, "Long 
Tom," and several others, dismounted, deemed it folly to think 
of saving her against so superior a force ; they, therefore, cut 
her masts to the deck, blew a hole through her bottom, took 
out their small arms, clothing, etc., and went ashore. I dis- 
covered only two shot-holes in the hull of the privateer, although 
much cut up in the rigging. 

Two boats' crews were afterwards dispatched from our ves- 
sels, which went on board, took out some provisions, and set 
her on fire. 

For three days after we were employed in burying the dead 
that washed ashore in the surf. The number of the British 
killed exceeded 120, and 90 wounded. The enemy, the Ameri- 
cans, to the surprise of mankind, lost only two killed and seven 
wounded. We may well say, " God deliver us from our ene- 
mies," if this is the way the Americans fight. 

After burning the privateer, Captain Lloyd made a demand 



KING'S MOUNTAIN. 175 

of the Governor to deliver up the Americans as prisoners — 
which the Governor refused. He then sent 500 men on shore 
to take them by force. The Americans immediately retired, 
with their arms, to an old Gothic convent, knocked away the 
adjoining drawbridge, and determined to defend themselves 
to the last. The Captain, however, changing his mind, made 
no further attempt ; only demanded two men, which, he said, 
deserted from his vessel when in America. The Governor 
sent for the men, but found none of the description given. 

Many houses received much injury on shore, from the guns 
of the "Carnation." The American Consul here has made a 
demand on the Portuguese government for a hundred thou- 
sand dollars for the privateer, which our Consul, Mr. Parkin, 
thinks, in justice, will be paid; and that they will claim on 
England. Mr. Parkin, Mr. Edward Bayley and another 
English gentleman disapprove of the outrage and depredation 
committed by our vessels on this occasion. The vessel that 
was dispatched to England with the wounded was not per- 
mitted to take a single letter from any person. Being an 
eye-witness to this transaction, I have given you a correct 
statement as it occurred. H. K. F. 



KING'S MOUNTAIN. 

(A Revolutionary Battle fought October 7th, 1780.) 



"We marched to the Cowpens; Campbell was there, 

Shelby, Cleaveland and Colonel Sevier ; 

Men of renown, Sir, like lions, so bold ; 

Like lions, undaunted, ne'er to be controlled. 

We set out on our march that very same night ; 

Sometimes we were wrong, sometimes we were right. 

Our hearts being run in true liberty's mold, 

We valued not hunger, wet, weary or cold. 
•On the top of King's Mountain the old rogue we found, 

And, like brave heroes, his camp did surround; 

Like lightning, the flashes ; like thunder, the noise ; 

Our rifles struck the poor tories with sudden surprise. 

Old Song. 



176 



VALIANT EXPLOITS. 
FEMININE INTREPIDITY. 



WILLIAM ROBBINS. 




N the year 1697, Mademoiselle de Vercheres, a 
little more than fifteen years old, was walking 
on the banks of the St. Lawrence, when she 
heard the hissing of bullets, and beheld a 
party of Iroquois on the point of surrounding 
her. She fled at her best speed, and they 
pursued her ; she threw herself into the fort, 
shut the gates and gave the alarm. 

She heard the cries of the terrified women, 
and fearing that they would impede rather than assist the 
defence, she shut them up in a secure place. A single soldier 
was on duty in the fort. She flew to join him, put on a hat 
and a uniform coat, armed herself with a musket, showed her- 
self on the walls, and fired on the Iroquois. She then affected 
a loud, manly voice, pretended to have a numerous troop 
under her command, and flew from sentry box to sentry box, 
as if to distribute the posts. Warming with her work, the 
heroine then loaded a cannon, and discharged it by herself. 
This spread terror among the Iroquois ; it, at the same time, 
warned the garrisons of the neighboring forts to be on the 
defensive, and quickly the banks of the river resounded with 
the roar of artillery. 

Thus, this young person saved the Fort of Vercheres, and 
perhaps the whole colony. This courage, hereditary in her 
family, seemed to be transmitted to the women, as well as to 
the men. Her mother, two years before, had displayed the 
same intrepidity. The place had been invested by the Iroquois 
at a time when the garrison was absent. There were only three 
soldiers, who were all killed. When Madam de Vercheres saw 
the last fall, while defending himself like a brave man, in a 
redoubt fifty paces from the fort, she armed herself in haste, 



AN INDIAN HERO. 



177 



advanced alone along the covered way, gained the redoubt 
before the enemy could scale it, fired at them, and at every 
shot brought down an assailant. 

They were astonished and terrified, and were on the point 
of flying before a woman, when the approach of a body of 
French completed their dispersion. 



AN INDIAN HERO. 




OSEPH Dana is only an Indian, eighty years 
old, and, like many others, he sometimes 
imbibes the exhilarating and intoxicating 
fluid. He stands about six feet, unshod, is 
broad-shouldered, full-chested, carries his 
head erect, and has a straight spinal column. 
On November 19th, 1883, at about 4 o'clock, 
he arrived at Lincoln, Maine, on a ride from 
Lee, a distance of twelve miles ; being thinly 
clad, he was cold, and, being cold, and in the act of taking 
his inner warming, the cry, "A boy in the pond! A boy 
drowning ! The ice has broken, and lots are in the water ! " 
sounded on his ear. Like a chieftain of old of his tribe, at 
the sound of the war-whoop, he leaped through the door 
with Indian stride, rushed to the scene of danger, and stayed 
not his pace until he broke through the ice within about ten 
feet of where four small boys were struggling for life. Then, 
as a wild moose escaping the hounds breaks the ice with his 
fore feet, so Dana with his fists and giant arms smashed the 
ice between himself and the drowning boys. He reached 
them, and with the aid of another Indian who had plunged 
into the water three were landed. The other, a boy of about 
six years, had risen and sunk twice, and was then beneath the 
cold water, far from the reach of rope or pole. It was then 
that Joseph showed himself a hero. Plunging beneath the 
12 



178 



VALIANT EXPLOITS. 



ice, nearly chilled to death himself, he grasped the boy, and 
brought him to the surface in an exhausted condition. Life 
was not quite extinct, and though the sled rope he grasped 
had to be cut before it could be taken from his hands, through 
prompt and skillful efforts the boy still lives. — Lewiston {Me) 
Gazette. 



A BRAVE GIRL. 




, HE Iowa Legislative Committee recently pre- 
sented Miss Kate Shelley, a young girl of 
eighteen, with a gold medal, for bravery. 

At about dark, on the sixth of July, 1881, 
a storm of wind and rain of unparalleled 
severity broke over this region. In an 
hour's time every creek was out of its banks, 
and the Des Moines River had risen six 
feet. So sudden was the flood and such was the velocity of 
the wind, that houses, barns, lumber, and all portable objects 
within reach of the waters were carried away. Looking from 
her window, which in daylight commanded a view of the 
Honey Creek railroad bridge, Kate Shelley saw, through the 
darkness and storm, a locomotive headlight. A second later 
it dropped, and though the crash which it must have made 
was not perceptible above the roar of the wind, she knew 
that the bridge had gone and that a train of cars had fallen 
into the abyss. There was no one at home but her mother 
and her little brother and sister, and the girl understood that 
if help was to be given to the sufferers, and the express train, 
then nearly due, warned, she would have to undertake the 
task alone. 

Hastily filling and lighting an old lantern, and wrapping 
herself in a waterproof, she sallied out in the storm. She first 
made an effort to reach the water's edge, but finding that the 
flood was already far above all the paths and roadways, and 
realizing that she could do nothing in or near that mad torrent, 



A BRAVE GIRL. 1/9 

she climbed painfully up the steep bluff to the track, tearing 
her clothing to rags on the thick undergrowth, and lacerating 
her flesh most painfully. A part of the bridge still remained, 
and, crawling out on this to the last tie, she swung her lantern 
over the abyss, and called out at the top of her voice. It was 
pitchy dark below, but she was answered faintly by the engin- 
eer, who had crawled up on some of the broken timbers, and, 
though injured, was safe for the time being. From him the 
girl learned that it was a freight train that had gone into the 
chasm, and that he alone of that train's hands had escaped. 
He urged her, however, to proceed at once to the nearest 
station, to secure help for him, and to warn the approaching 
express train of the fall of the bridge. 

The girl then retraced her steps, gained the track and made 
her way, with all the speed that the gale would permit, toward 
Moingona, a small station about one mile from Honey Creek. 
In making this perilous journey it was necessary for her to 
cross the high trestle bridge over the Des Moines River, about 
five hundred feet in length. Just as she tremblingly put her 
foot on this structure, the wind, rain, thunder and lightning 
were so appalling that she nearly lost her balance, and in the 
endeavor to save herself, her sole companion, the old lantern, 
went out. She had no matches, but if she had had thousands 
of them they would have been of no service in such a place 
and in such a storm. Deprived of her light, she could not 
see a foot ahead of her, save when dazzling flashes of lightning 
revealed the grim outlines of the bridge and the seething 
waters beneath. Knowing that she had no time to lose, the 
brave girl threw away the useless lamp, and dropping on her 
hands and knees, crawled from tie to tie across the high trestle. 
Having gained the ground again, she ran the short distance 
remaining to the station, told her story in breathless haste, and 
fell unconscious at the feet of the gaping rustics, who, in their 
eagerness to know her adventures, forgot the terror and sus- 
pense which she had endured. 

— New York Christian Advocate. 



1 80 VALIANT EXPL OITS. 

THE GLOVE AND THE LIONS. 



SP*«* 



. l ^ppIP ING Francis was a hearty king, and loved a royal sport, 
And one day, as his lions strove, sat looking on the court ; 
The nobles fill'd the benches round, the ladies by their 
•k * > side, 

^tyjM/ And 'mongst them Count de Lorge, with one he hoped to 
S& •• make his bride ; 

•f* And truly 'twas a gallant thing to see that crowning show, 
Valor and love, and a king above, and the royal beasts 
below. 



Ramped and roared the lions, with horrid laughing jaws ; 
They bit, they glared, gave blows like beams, a wind 
went with their paws ; 
^ With wallowing might and stifled roar they rolled one on 
another, 
Till all the pit, with sand and mane, was in a thundrous 
Y smother ; 

The bloody foam above the bars came whizzing through 
1 the air ; 

Said Francis then, "Good gentlemen, we're better here 
than there ! " 



De Lorge's love o'erheard the king, a beauteous, lively dame, 

With smiling lips, and sharp, bright eyes, which always seemed the 

same : 
She thought, "The Count, my lover, is as brave as brave can be ; 
He surely would do desperate things to show his love of me ! 
King, ladies, lovers, all look on ; the chance is wondrous fine ; 
I'll drop my glove to prove his love ; great glory will be mine ! " 



She dropp'd her glove to prove his love ; then looked on him and 

smiled ; 
He bowed, and in a moment leaped among the lions wild : 
The leap was quick ; return was quick ; he soon regained his place ; 
Then threw the glove, but not with love, right in the lady's face ! 
In truth! " cried Francis, " rightly done ! " and he rose from where he 

sat: 
' No love," quoth he, "but vanity, sets love a task like that!" 

Leigh Hunt. 



MILL RIVER RIDE. 
MILL RIVER RIDE— 1874. 



181 



J. W. DONOVAN. 




\ 



jj^^j^VER the hills, through the valley away, 

Spreading confusion and dreadful dismay, 
Spurring his horse to his uttermost speed, 
Halting a moment and changing his steed, 

Crying aloud, in a voice of command : 
" Run ! run ! for your lives, high up on the land ! 
Away, men and children ! up, quick, and begone ! 
The water's broke loose ; it is chasing me on ! " 

Away down the river, like a spirit, he runs, 
While the roar of the torrent, like the roaring of guns, 
Wakes the air with the echo of trembling might, 
Till the flood from the reservoir rushes in sight. 

Bear away ! bear away, in confusion and haste ; 
What of value remains will be swallowed in waste ; 
The torrent rolls onward in terrible force, 
Dealing death and destruction to all in its course ! 

But bold Collins Graves has reached Williamsburg hills, 
Spreading terror and fright throughout all the mills ; 
While the flood follows faster, increasing its speed, 
New horsemen set forth on lightning-limbed steed. 

In the valley of death, swept away like a flower, 
Six scores of brave workmen destroyed in an hour ! 
With the rough, rugged rubbish, that swept down the river, 
'Mid groanings for help, they have perished forever ! 

Oh ! God, what a sight for mortals to see ! 

Whole households engulfed in the stream, like a tree ! 

The day breaks in terror — in sorrow it ends, 

For hundreds bewail the sad loss of their friends. 

All night, through the darkness, loud groans may be heard, 
Yet hundreds are dumb, who can utter no word ! 
The flood has gone down, and the ruins along 
The course of the rapids have passed into song. 



182 



VALIANT EXPLOITS. 



Of all that gave aid, or that battled those waves, 

No name will shine brighter than bold Collins Graves. 

'Twas he that first rose at the sound of alarm, 

And rode through the valley, foretelling of harm ; 

Forgetting his danger, in haste to do right — 

Let us honor the gateman, and keep his name bright. 



A WONDERFUL FEAT. 




JHAT the display of knightly and chivalrous 
deeds is not always reserved for the field of 
battle, is abundantly demonstrated by the 
following thrilling incident, which occurred 
during one of the grand reviews of the Aus- 
trian army. Not far from where 30,000 
cavalry were in line, a little child — a girl 
of not more than four years — standing in 
the front row of spectators, either from fright, or some 
other cause, rushed out into the open field just as a squadron 
of hussars came sweeping around from the main body. They 
made the detour for the purpose of saluting the Empress, 
whose carriage was drawn up in that part of the parade- 
ground. Down came the flying squadron, charging at a 
mad gallop — down, directly upon the child. The mother 
was paralyzed, as were others, for there could be no rescue 
from the line of spectators. The Empress uttered a cry of 
horror, for the child's destruction seemed inevitable, and such 
terrible destruction — the trampling to death by a thousand 
iron hoofs. Directly under the feet of the horse was the little 
one — another instant must seal her doom — when a stalwart 
hussar, who was in the front line, without slackening his speed 
or loosening his hold, threw himself over by the side of his 
horse's neck, seized and lifted the child, and placed it with 
safety on his saddle-bow, and this he did without changing his 
pace, or breaking the correct alignment of the squadron. 
Ten thousand voices hailed, with rapturous applause, the 



THE RELIEF OF LUCKNOW. 



163 



gallant deed, and other thousands applauded when they heard 
it. Two women there were who could only sob forth their 
gratitude in broken accents — the mother and the Empress. 
A proud and happy moment it must have been to the hussar, 
when the Emperor, taking from his own breast the richly- 
enameled cross of the Order of Maria Theresa, hung it upon 

the breast of his brave and gallant trooper. 

— Anonymous. 



THE RELIEF OF LUCKNOW. 




N the Summer of 1857 the British garrison in 
Lucknow, India, were reduced to perilous 
straits. They were besieged by the native 
rebels in a largely outnumbering force. Cruel, 
vindictive, and remorseless, these mutineers, 
could they enter the city, would put all the 
men, women and children to a fearful death. 
They had advanced their batteries and mines 
so far that in less than an hour the city must 
fall, unless relief should be at hand. And relief was at hand, 
though no one was aware of it. Havelock, with 2500 men, 
was approaching, but amid the din and smoke of the cannonade 
nothing could be heard or seen. 

On came Havelock and his men ; they hewed a passage 
through the rebel masses up to the very walls of Lucknow, 
and snatched their countrymen from the horrors of their 
impending fate. 

Oh, that last day in Lucknow fort ! 

We knew that it was the last, 
That the enemy's lines crept surely on, 

And the end was coming fast. 

To yield to that foe was worse than death, 

And the men and we all worked on ; 
It was one day more of smoke and roar, 

And then it would all be done. 



184 VALIANT EXPLOITS. 

There was one of us, a corporal's wife, 

A fair, young, gentle thing, 
Wasted with fever in the siege, 

And her mind was wandering. 

She lay on the ground, in her Scottish plaid, 
And I took her head on my knee : 
" When my father comes hame frae the pleugh," she said, 
" Oh ! then please waken me !" 

She slept like a child on her father's floor, 

In the flecking of woodbine-shade, 
When the house dog sprawls by the open door, 

And the mother's wheel is staid. 

It was smoke and roar and powder stench, 

And hopeless waiting for death ; 
And the soldier's wife, like a full-tired child, 

Seemed scarce to draw her breath. 

I sank to sleep ; and I had my dream 

Of an English village lane, 
And wall and garden — but one wild scream 

Brought me back to the roar again. 

There Jessie Brown stood listening, 

Till a sudden gladness broke 
All over her face, and she caught my hand 

And drew me near, as she spoke : — 

" The Hielanders ! Oh ! dinna ye hear 
The slogan far awa ? 
The McGregors ? Oh ! I ken it weel ; 
It's the grandest o' them a' ! 

" God bless the bonny Hielanders ! 

We' re saved ! We' re saved !" she cried ; 
And fell on her knees, and thanks to God 
Flowed forth like a full flood-tide. 

Along the battery line her cry 

Had fallen among the men, 
And they started back ; they were there to die ; 

But was life so near them then ? 



THE RELIEF OF LUCKNOW. 185 

They listened for life ; the rattling fire 

Far off, and the far-off roar, 
Were all ; and the colonel shook his head, 

And they turned to their guns once more. 

But Jessie said, "the slogan's done ; 

But winna ye hear it noo, 
The Campbell ' s are coming ! It's nae a dream ; 

Our succors hae broken through !" 

We heard the roar and the rattle afar, 

But the pipes we could not hear ; 
So the men plied their work of hopeless war, 

And knew that the end was near. 

It was not long ere it made its way, 

A shrilling, ceaseless sound : 
It was no noise from the strife afar, 

Or the sappers under ground. 

It was the pipes of the Highlanders ! 

And now they played Auld Lang Syne ! 
It came to our men like the voice of God, 

And they shouted along the line. 

And they wept and shook one another's hands, 

And the women sobbed in a crowd ; 
And every one knelt down where he stood, 

And we all thanked God aloud. 

That happy time when we welcomed them, 

Our men put Jessie first ; 
And the General gave her his hand, and cheers, 

Like a storm, from the soldiers burst. 

And the pipers' ribbons and tartans streamed, 

Marching round and round our line ; 
And our joyful cheers were broken with tears, 

As the pipers played Auld Lang Syne I 

Robert Lowell. 



1 86 VALIANT EXPL OITS. 

HEROISM OF GRACE DARLING. 



WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. 



«RACE DARLING was the daughter of the 
lighthouse keeper of Longstone, on one of 
the most exposed of the Fame Islands. She 
was born at Bamborough, on the coast of 
Northumberland, England, November 24th, 
181 5, and died October 20th, 1842. 
On the night of September 6th, 1838, the 
Forfarshire steamer, proceeding from Hull 
to Dundee, was wrecked on one of the crags of the Fame 
group. Of fifty-three persons on board, thirty-eight perished, 
including the captain and his wife. 

On the morning of the 7th the survivors were discovered 
by Grace, clinging to the rocks and remnants of the vessel, in 
imminent danger of being washed off by the returning tide. 

Grace, with the assistance of her parents, but against their 
remonstrances, immediately launched a boat, and with her 
father, succeeded in rescuing nine of them, and six escaped by 
other means. Presents and demonstrations of admiration were 
showered upon her from all parts of the United Kingdom, and 
a public subscription to the amount of ,£700 was raised for 
her. 

Among the dwellers in the silent fields 

The natural heart is touched ; and public way 

And crowded street resound with ballad strains, 

Inspired by one whose very name bespeaks 

Favor divine, exalting human love, 

Whom, since her birth on bleak Northumbria's coast, 

Known unto few, but prized as far as known, 

A single act endears to high and low, 

Through the whole land — to manhood, moved in spite 

Of the world's freezing cares — to generous youth — 

To infancy, that lisps her praise — and age, 

Whose eye reflects it, glistening through a tear 

Of tremulous admiration. 



HEROISM OF GRACE DARLING. 187 

Such true fame 

Awaits her now. But, verily, good deeds 

Do no imperishable record find, 

Save in the rolls of Heaven, where hers may live, 

A theme for angels, when they celebrate 

The high-souled virtues which forgetful earth 

Has witnessed. Oh ! that winds and waves could speak 

Of things which their united power calls forth 

From the pure depths of her humanity ! 

A maiden gentle, yet at duty's call 

Firm and unflinching as the lighthouse reared 

On the island rock, her lonely dwelling-place, 

Or like the invincible rock itself, that braves, 

Age after age, the hostile elements, 

As when it guarded holy Cuthbert's cell. 

All night the storm had raged, nor ceased, nor paused, 
When, as day broke, the maid, through misty air, 
Espies, far off, a wreck amid the surf, 
Beating on one of those disastrous isles — 
Half of a vessel — half, no more ; the rest 
Had vanished, swallowed up with all that there 
Had for the common safety striven in vain, 
Or thither thronged for refuge. 

With quick glance 

Daughter and sire through optic glass discern, 
Clinging about the remnant of this ship, 
Creatures — how precious in the maiden's sight ! 
For whom, belike, the old man grieves still more 
Than for their fellow-sufferers engulfed 
Where every parting agony is hushed, 
And hope and fear mix not in further strife. 
' But courage father ! let us out to sea — 
A few may yet be saved !" 

The daughter's words, 

Her earnest tone, and looks beaming with faith, 

Dispel the father's doubts ; nor do they lack 

The noble-minded mother's helping hand 

To launch the boat ; and with her blessing cheered, 

And inwardly sustained by silent prayer, 

Together they put forth — father and child ! 



188 VALIANT EXPLOITS. 

Each grasps an oar, and struggling on they go — 

Rivals in effort, and alike intent, 

Here to elude and there surmount, they watch 

The billows lengthening, mutually crossed 

And shattered, and re-gathering their might, 

As if the tumult, by the Almighty's will, 

Were, in the conscious sea, roused and prolonged, 

That woman's fortitude — so tried, so proved — 

May brighten more and more ! 

True to the mark, 

They stem the current of that perilous gorge, 

Their arms still strengthening with the strengthening heart, 

Though danger, as the wreck is neared, becomes 

More imminent. Not unseen do they approach ; 

And rapture, with varieties of fear 

Incessantly conflicting, thrills the frames 

Of those who in that dauntless energy 

Foretaste deliverance. 

But the least perturbed 

Can scarcely trust his eyes, when he perceives 
That of the pair — tossed on the waves to bring 
Hope to the hopeless, to the dying life — 
One is a woman, a poor earthly sister ! 
Or, be the visitant other than she seems, 
A guardian spirit sent from pitying Heaven, 
In woman's shape ? 

But why prolong the tale, 

Casting weak words amid a host of thoughts 

Armed to repel them ! Every hazard faced 

And difficulty mastered, with resolve 

That no one breathing should be left to perish, 

This last remainder of the crew are all 

Placed in the little boat, then o'er the deep 

Are safely borne, landed upon the beach, 

And in fulfillment of God's mercy, lodged 

Within the sheltering lighthouse. 

Shout, ye waves ! 

Send forth a sound of triumph. Waves and winds 
Exult in this deliverance wrought through faith 
In Him whose providence your rage has served ! 
Ye screaming sea-mews, in the concert join ! 



THE MILKMAIDS OF DORT. 



189 



And would that some immortal voice — a voice 
Fitly attuned to all that gratitude 
Breathes out from floor or couch, through pallid lips 
Of the survivors — to the clouds might bear, 
Blended with praise of that parental love 
Beneath whose watchful eye the maiden grew, 
Pious and pure, modest and yet so brave, 
Though young, so wise, though meek, so resolute — 
Might carry to the clouds and to the stars, 
Yea, to celestial choirs, Grace Darling's name ! 



THE MILKMAIDS OF DORT. 




IRLS often declare that boys have all the fun. 
Well, they certainly do seem to get the 
largest share of it in a good many ways. 
Then, when they grow up, they are very apt, 
too, to carry off all the honor, the literary 
fame, the military glory, the professional 
success, while the girls are left at hc/me to 
do worsted-work. 
Now and then, however, the girls come to the front in art, 
literature, in science, and even in war. You all know how 
Joan of Arc led the armies of France to victory, and how Moll 
Pitcher stood at the mouth of her cannon, pouring confusion 
into the British ranks. 

Not so great as these women of martial fame were the 
"Milkmaids of Dort," but still they have their place in history. 
If any of you ever go to Holland, the land of wooden dykes 
and windmills, it is quite possible that you may find yourselves 
some day in the ancient town of Dort, or Dordrecht. It is a 
grand old city. Here, among these antiquated buildings, with 
their queer gables and great iron cranes, many an interesting 
historical event has taken place. 

In the centre of the great market place of Dort stands a 
fountain, and if you will look close you will see upon the tall 



1 90 VA LI ANT EXPL OITS. 

pyramid a relievo representing a cow, and underneath, in sit- 
ting posture, a milkmaid. They are there to commemorate 
the following historical fact: — 

When the provinces of the United Netherlands were strug- 
gling for their liberty, two beautiful daughters of a rich farmer, 
on their way to the town with milk, observed not far from their 
path several Spanish soldiers concealed behind some hedges. 
The patriotic maidens pretended not to have seen anything, 
pursued their journey, and as soon as they arrived in the city, 
insisted upon an admission to the burgomaster, who had not 
yet left his bed. They were soon admitted, and related what 
they had discovered. The news was spread about. Not a 
moment was lost. The council was assembled; measures 
were immediately taken ; the sluices were opened, and a num- 
ber of the enemy lost their lives in the water. Thus the in- 
habitants were saved from an awful doom. 

The magistrates in a body honored the farmer with a visit, 
where they thanked his daughters for the act of patriotism 
which saved the town. They afterwards indemnified him fully 
for the loss he sustained from the inundation, and the most 
distinguished young citizens vied with each other who should 
be honored with the hands of the milkmaids. Then, as the 
years went by, the fountain was erected, and the story com- 
memorated in stone. — Harper's Young People. 



THE BATTLE OF LEXINGTON. 



12*L 




OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 



llU^LOWLY the mist o'er the meadow was creeping, 
Bright, on the dewy buds, glistened the sun, 
When from his couch, while his children were sleeping, 
Rose the bold rebel, and shouldered his gun. 
Waving her golden vail 
Over the silent dale, 
Blithe looked the morning on cottage andspire; 
Hushed was his parting sigh, 
While from his noble eye 
Flashed the last sparkle of liberty's fire. 



THE BATTLE OF LEXINGTON. 191 

On the smooth green, where the fresh leaf is springing, 

Calmly the first-born of glory have met ; 
Hark ! the death volley around them is ringing ! 
Look ! with their life blood the young grass is wet I 
Faint is the feeble breath, 
Murmuring low in death, 
" Tell to our sons how their fathers have died; " 
Nerveless the iron hand, 
Raised for its native land, 
Lies by the weapon that gleams at its side. 

Over the hillsides the wild knell is tolling, 

From their far hamlets the yeomanry come ; 
As through the storm clouds the thunder burst rolling, 
Circles the beat of the mustering drum, 

Fast, on the soldier's path, 

Darken the waves of wrath ; 
Long have they gathered, and loud shall they fall ; 

Red glares the musket's flash, 

Sharp rings the rifles' crash, 
Blazing and clanging from thicket and wall. 

Gayly, the plume of the horseman was dancing, 

Never to shadow his cold brow again ; 
Proudly, at morning, the war steed was prancing, 
Reeking and panting, he droops on the rein ; 

Pale is the lip of scorn, 

Voiceless the trumpet horn, 
Torn is the silken-fringed red cross on high ; 

Many a belted breast 

Low on the turf shall rest, 
Ere the dark hunters the herd have passed by. 

Snow-girdled crags, where the hoarse wind is raving, 

Rocks, where the weary floods murmur and wail, 
Wilds, where the fir by the furrow is waving, 
Reeled with the echoes that rode on the gale ; 
Far as the tempest thrills 
Over the darkened hills, 
Far as the sunshine streams over the plain, 
. Roused by the tyrant-band, 
Woke all the mighty land, 
Girded for battle, from mountain to main. 



192 



VALIANT EXPLOITS. 



Green be the graves where the martyrs are lying — 
Shroudless and tombless they sunk to their rest ! 
While, o'er their ashes, the starry fold flying 

Wraps the proud eagle they roused from his nest. 

Borne on her Northern pine, 

Long o'er the foaming brine, 
Spread her broad banner to storm and to sun ; 

Heaven keep her ever free, 

Wide as o'er land and sea, 
Floats the fair emblem her heroes have won. 



JOHN SOBIESKI RELIEVING VIENNA— 1683. 



CAPT. CHARLES KING, U. S. A. 




TENNA, the beautiful capital of the Empire 
of Austria, lies on a level plain, surrounded 
by a low circle of hills and traversed by the 
river Danube. Its name is taken from a 
sluggish stream, the Wien, which flows 
under the walls into an arm of the great 
river that separates the city from the suburb 
of Leopoldstadt, on the northeast. From 
its geographical position and its political 
importance, the city has been subjected to several sieges, and 
has been the scene of many a great conference and treaty of 
peace between the various European powers ; but, for years of 
its early existence, it lay in the track of every horde of 
barbaric invaders, and after the establishment of Mussulman 
power in Eastern Europe, it was incessantly threatened by the 
Turks. These people besieged it, in strong force, in 1529; but 
it was gallantly defended, and they were driven back with 
great loss. Then, during the "Thirty Years' War," the troops 
of Sweden several times came within alarming proximity to 



JOHN SOBIESKT RELIEVING VIENNA. 193 

its walls, but without attack. Then came a brief respite, and 
finally, in 1683, nearly forty years after the long and dis- 
heartening war in which the Empire had been engaged, there 
came a siege that well-nigh wiped it out of existence. 

Leopold, I, was Emperor of Austria. He had been crowned 
King of Hungary, in 1654, but had to fight for his possessions, 
with the Turks, in which contest his general, the same Monte- 
cuculi who had won such distinction in the "Thirty Years' 
War," gained a great victory over the Infidels, at St. Gothard, 
on the Raab, and from that time the Sultan had been busily 
preparing his revenge. 

In 1683, the Grand Vizier, Kara Mustapha, marched with 
an immense army and powerful train to lay siege to Vienna, 
and humble it and its master in the dust. Leopold stood not 
upon the order of his going, but, with his family, court and 
thousands of inhabitants, he went at once. The country was 
filled with fugitives, carts and plunder, and the Turks, falling 
upon the hindermost, slaughtered or made captive, as they saw 
fit. So secure did the Vizier feel against counter-attack on his 
great army, that he disdained to fortify his camp. 

Vienna, with its strong fortifications, its artillery, magazines 
and public buildings, had been confided to the charge of Count 
de Staremberg, a thorough theoretical soldier. He burned the 
suburbs outside the walls, so as to clear the way for his guns, 
and then with a garrison of perhaps 15,000 effectives, he set 
about the task of defending the capital against probably five 
times that many. 

The Turks broke ground for their first trenches in the 
suburbs of St. Ulric, on the fourteenth of July, about fifty 
yards from the ditch, which, partly dry, partly flooded, extended 
around the walls. 

In his flight and refuge, Leopold had appealed for aid to the 
only man then living who was a terror to the Tartar — John 
Sobieski, King of Poland. Rich and powerful Austria begged 
this little monarchy to come to the rescue of the Empire and 
the Christian world; and at the head of 25,000 veteran troops, 
13 



194 VALIANT EXPLOITS. 

Sobieski started. He had to march nearly six hundred miles, 
the winding way he came, but on the fifth of September he 
was crossing the bridge of Tuln, fifteen miles above Vienna. 
His cavalry were superbly mounted and equipped; his infantry 
were in rags and tatters. The people looked aghast at their 
poverty-stricken appearance, but Sobieski laughed it off! 
"Those fellows," said he, "have taken an oath to wear no 
clothes except those of the enemy. In the last war they were 
all dressed as Turks." And his hardy soldiers seemed to de- 
light in the joke. On September 7th, the army of Poland had 
joined that of Germany, and the united forces were now 
74,000 strong. 

To Sobieski was accorded the command-in-chief, for he was 
already recognized as the finest soldier then in the ranks of 
war. He lost no time in organizing his forces, for he well 
knew the desperate condition of affairs in Vienna, and that he 
could not too soon appear before the walls, to the relief of the 
suffering garrison. 

From the heights of Calemburg Sobieski had carefully 
reconnoitred the position of the Turks. " That Vizier is an 
ignorant fellow," said he ; " we shall beat him." Close under 
the heights the ground was cut up into vineyards, ravines and 
ridges. The cavalry of the Turks, which had advanced with 
great spirit, were met by fierce discharges from the guns which 
they strove in vain to reach ; and, at length, thrown into 
confusion by the rapid fire and the broken nature of the 
ground, they broke and galloped back in much disorder. 
While they were being rallied some of the Turkish generals 
led forward the infantry to the foothills, artd then began to 
breast the heights against the slowly descending allies. All 
at once the guns of Sobieski ceased their thunder, and with 
one accord the bristling lines of infantry marched out beyond 
them ; then, with mighty shouts, pikemen and musketeers 
came charging down the slopes at the irregular masses of the 
Turks. It was a dashing and impetuous assault ; the Moslems 
could make no stand whatever against it. Back they went, 



JOHN SOB IE SKI RELIEVING VIENNA. . 195 

through the ravines and vineyards, closely pressed by the 
cheering allies, and at last they were forced out on to the 
open plain. 

Meantime things had gone badly with Kara Mustapha. 
The grand assault on the walls had been repulsed with heavy 
loss. The besieged, animated by the sight of their coming 
comrades, fought with great valor and determination. Then, 
he was dismayed by the ease with which his troops had been 
whipped back from the heights by the German infantry ; and 
now, thoroughly alarmed, as he marked the gallant and 
spirited bearing of the Polish lancers as they rode up into 
line, their bright banneroles waving and flashing in the 
sunlight, he hastily sent orders to concentrate the entire 
army on the plain, to face the allies. All the time his 
infidel hordes were keeping up a deafening chorus of shouts 
and yells. 

On the side of the allies all was disciplined silence. In 
perfect silence the lines were accurately dressed ; the army 
enjoyed a brief resting spell ; then, at length, Sobieski, sabre 
in hand, rode out to the front of the centre and gave the 
signal. Sudden as the flash of their own guns six splendid 
regiments of Polish cavalry leaped forward to the charge, and, 
with bared sabres and quivering lances, bore down on the 
very centre of the Turkish position. In vain footman, Jan- 
nissary and Spahi braced themselves for the shock and strug- 
gled to hold their ground against them ; these northern 
horsemen rode through or over everything and everybody, 
and, never drawing rein, overturned the very squadrons that 
surrounded the Vizier himself. 

By three o'clock in the afternoon the whole Mussulman 
army, abandoning its vast encampment, was in disorderly 
flight eastward, down the valley of the Danube, pursued and 
sabred by the Polish cavalry. The siege of Vienna was raised 
in good earnest. 

The amount of money and valuables left behind by Kara 
Mustapha in his panicky flight was simply incalculable. King 



196 VALIANT EXPLOITS. 

John Sobieski wrote to his wife : " The Grand Vizier has made 
me his heir, and I have found in his tents to the value of 
many millions of ducats." 

And so, with very little loss of life among his army, 
Sobieski, of Poland, saved the Empire of Austria. It was a 
crowning and decisive victory. The losses of the Turks 
were so great, in life, treasure and military property, that 
the lesson proved most salutary. They fell back to their 
own provinces in the East, and henceforth abandoned all 
attempts upon the Christian capitals and strongholds of the 
Danube. 

Had Vienna been taken by the Turks it would, perhaps, 
have been held as Constantinople has been held. Its churches 
would have become Pagan mosques, and the followers of 
Islam would have occupied the heart of a populous and 
wealthy country. Powerless to help himself, the Emperor had 
called in Sobieski. 

Him the people of Vienna welcomed and honored, as 
they would a deliverer from heaven. Entering the city, 
he was overwhelmed with their acclamations, praises and 
gratitude. He was their deliverer, their hero. They forgot 
their own monarch, who had abandoned them. They 
saw only Sobieski. Poland had saved Austria. The first 
part of the old fable of the lion and the mouse had been 
enacted. 

But there it ended. Once safe and restored to his capital, 
a haughty nod was the sole reward the emperor vouchsafed 
the king; and when dissensions and strife over its elective 
monarchy arose in Poland, soon after, three powerful and 
jealous neighbors took advantage of the snarl to pounce upon 
and divide up the little kingdom amongst them ; and Austria, 
who owed her life to Poland, was the most rapacious and 
cruel of her plunderers. Poland, stifled and strangled by the 
hand she raised from the dust, is no longer a nation. — From 
"Famous and Decisive Battles of the World." 



"I'LL TR Y, SIR." 
"I'LL TRY, SIR." 



197 




N the 25th of July, 18 14, the bloody battle 
of Bridgewater and Lundy's Lane took 
place, near the banks of Niagara. It was 
six o'clock, and a sultry evening, when the 
British forces, under General Drummond, 
advanced to meet the American columns, 
and a more deadly contest never raged on 
the soil of our beloved country, than that 
which then commenced ; the roar of the neighboring cataract 
lost itself in the booming of the cannon ; the voices of many 
waters, and the voices of battle sang bass together ; and the 
dead slept in sweet forgetfulness upon the moonlit hill. The 
first brigade, under General Scott, with Towson's artillery and 
a body of cavalry, sustained the attack of the British army for 
an hour, unaided. General Ripley, with fresh troops, now 
arrived, and relieved General Scott, while the latter, with his 
exhausted brigade, formed a reserve in the rear. 

The British artillery had taken post on an eminence, at the 
head of Lundy's Lane, and were pouring forth a most deadly 
fire on the Americans. General Brown, the commander of 
the American forces, feeling the terrible havoc made by the 
enemy's cannon, concluded that it was necessary to dislodge 
them or retreat. It was a dreadful duty. The troops that 
were to march up Lundy's Lane might well say their last 
prayers, and make their wills before moving. It was certain 
death to every second man of the forlorn hope. As the com- 
manding General rode along the foot of the hill, in thoughtful 
mood, he saw the brave Colonel Miller advancing, at the head 
of his newly-raised regiment, for further orders. He rode up 
to him. " Will you advance and capture the battery ? " said 
the General. " I will try, sir," said the modest Colonel. The 
General rode on, and the regiment gallantly wheeled and 
moved up Lundy's Lane. 



1 98 VALIANT EXPL O/TS. 

At every rod, the artillery on the height sent its messengers 
of death through the dense column ; but still there was no 
flinching. The voice of the noble Miller, as he waved his 
sword before the bloody gap, was heard, uttering the short 
and expressive order, " Steady, men — close ranks — march ! " 
Around him. the flower of the regiment fell, like the withered 
leaves of Autumn; but he heeded not his loss; he was ordered 
to take the battery on the hill, and he intended to do it. He 
advanced, therefore, coolly and steadily to his object. Amidst 
a tremendous blaze of artillery, and at the point of the 
bayonet, he carried the height. It was a gallant deed. I 
have never heard of its equal, except at the siege of San 
Sebastian. 

It was superior in temerity to Bonaparte's attack upon Little 
Gibraltar, at Toulon, because Miller had no covering for his 
troops, in case of a retreat. It was a dead march to glory ! 
Yet, at every step, the rear rank trod upon the dead and the 
dying; and the groans of suffering humanity mingled in with 
the hoarse rattle of the drum. When the conqueror, with his 
remnant of a regiment, trod upon the height of Lundy's Lane, 
and turned the cannon upon the astonished enemy, a death 
struggle ensued between the American and English armies. 
"These guns will decide the battle; they must be regained, or 
the army of Britain will be cut to pieces ; and, if regained, the 
Americans will be conquered." Such were the thoughts of 
each general. 

Now came the iron gripe of war. A terrible conflict raged 
upon the height; and when the morning sun rose upon Bridge- 
water, 1600 soldiers, friends and foes, lay sleeping in gory 
death, upon the hillside in Lundy's Lane. Surely, the battle 
of Bridgewater will never be forgotten by the patriot, the his- 
torian, or the poet; surely, the day will never dawn when the 
hero of Lundy's Lane shall be forgotten by an American 
citizen. We glory in the service of the brave. May the laurel 
circle the victor's brow in life, and at last hang upon a broken 
column over a deathless tomb ! — National Intelligencer. 



BRA VER Y OF ELIZABETH ZANE. 199 

BRAVERY OF ELIZABETH ZANE. 



BENSON J. LOSSING. 




URING an attack, by the Indians, on Fort 
Henry, a small establishment near the 
Wheeling Creek, now Wheeling, W. Va., in 
the summer of 1777, the powder of the gar- 
rison becoming exhausted, Ebenezer Zane, 
one of the garrison, remembered that there 
was a keg of the article in his house, sixty 
yards away. The man who should attempt 
to go for it would be exposed to the close and numerous shots 
of the Indians. Only one man could be spared from the fort, 
for the service. Colonel Shepard, the commander, was un- 
willing to order any one to the duty; he asked for a volunteer. 
Every man present eagerly offered to undertake the hazardous 
duty. They contended so long for the honor, that it was 
feared that the Indians would return to the siege before an 
attempt to get the powder should be made. At this moment, 
Elizabeth Zane came forward and asked permission to go for 
the powder, giving, as a reason, that her life was less valuable 
to the garrison than that of a man. She was a sister of 
Ebenezer and Silas Zane — the former the future founder of 
Zanesville, O. — and had just returned from Philadelphia, where 
she had finished her education, and was but little accustomed 
to the horrors of border warfare. With other females, she 
had assisted in casting bullets, making cartridges, and loading 
rifles. At first, she was peremptorily refused, but so earnest 
were her solicitations that consent was reluctantly given. She 
went out the gate and fearlessly passed the open space to her 
brother's house. The Indians saw her, and watched her move- 
ments. When she came out of the house, and, with the keg 
of powder in her arms, sped with the fleetness of a fawn 



200 



VALIANT EXPLOITS. 



toward the fort, they sent a full volley of bullets after her, but 
not a ball touched her person. 

The shield of God's providence was about her, and the noble 
girl entered the fort in safety with her valuable prize. A loud 
shout welcomed her, and every man, inspired by her heroism, 
resolved to repulse the foe, or die in the trench. The story 
of Elizabeth Zane ought to be perpetuated in marble, and 
preserved in the Valhalla of our Revolutionary heroes. 



A HEROINE OF THE REVOLUTION. 



MRS. E. F. ELLET. 




'N the second day of December, 1777, late in 
the afternoon, an officer in the British uni- 
form ascended the steps of a house in 
Second street, Philadelphia, immediately 
opposite the quarters occupied by General 
Howe, who, at that time, had full possession 
of the city. The house was plain and neat 
in its exterior, and well known to be ten- 
anted by William and Lydia Darrah, members of the Society 
of Friends. It was the place chosen by the superior officers 
of the army for private conference, whenever it was necessary 
to hold consultations of importance ; and selected, perhaps, on 
account of the unobtrusive character of its inmates, whose 
religion inculcated meekness and forbearance, and forbade 
them to practice the arts of war. 

The officer, who seemed quite familiar with the mansion, 
knocked at the door. It was opened ; and in the neatly 
furnished parlor he met the mistress, who spoke to him, 
calling him by name. It was the Adjutant-General; and he 
appeared in haste to give an order. This was that the back 
room above stairs might be prepared for the reception, that 



A HEROINE OF THE REVOLUTION. 201 

evening, of himself and his friends, who were to meet there and 
remain late. " And be sure, Lydia," he concluded, " that your 
family are all in bed at an early hour. I shall expect you to 
attend to this request. When our guests are ready to leave 
the house, I will, myself, give you notice, that you may let us 
out, and extinguish the fire and candles." 

Having delivered this order with an emphatic manner, which 
showed that he relied much on the prudence and discretion of 
the person he addressed, the Adjutant-General departed ; Lydia 
betook herself to getting all things in readiness. But the 
words she had heard, especially the injunction to retire early, 
rang in her ears ; and she could not divest herself of the inde- 
finable feeling that something of importance was in agitation. 
While her hands were busy in the duties that devolved upon 
her, her mind was no less actively at work. The evening 
closed in, and the officers came to the place of meeting. Lydia 
had ordered all the family to bed, and herself admitted the 
guests, after which she retired to her own apartment, and 
threw herself, without undressing, upon the bed. 

But sleep refused to visit her eyelids. Her vague appre- 
hensions gradually assumed more definite shape. She became 
more and more uneasy, till her nervous restlessness amounted 
to absolute horror. Unable longer to resist the impulse — not 
of curiosity, but surely of a far higher feeling — she slid from 
the bed, and taking off her shoes, passed noiselessly from her 
chamber and along the entry. 

Approaching cautiously the apartment in which the officers 
were assembled, she applied her ear to the keyhole. For a 
few moments she could distinguish but a word or two amid 
the murmur of voices ; yet what she did hear but stimulated 
her eager desire to learn the important secrets of the conclave. 

At length was profound silence, and a voice was heard reading 
a paper aloud. It was an order for the troops to quit the city 
on the night of the fourth, and march out to a secret attack 
upon the American army, then encamped at White Marsh. 

Lydia had heard enough. She retreated softly to her own 



202 VAL I A NT EXPL OITS. 

room, and laid herself quietly on the bed. In the deep stillness 
that reigned through the house she could hear the beating of 
her own heart, that heart now throbbing with emotions to 
which no speech could give utterance. It seemed to her but 
a few moments had elapsed when there was a knocking at her 
door. She knew very well what that signal meant, but took 
no heed. It was repeated, and more loudly ; still she gave no 
answer. 

Again, and yet more loudly, the knocks were repeated; and 
then she arose quickly, and opened the door. It was the 
Adjutant-General, who came to inform her they were ready to 
depart. Lydia let them out, fastened the house, and extin- 
guished the lights and fire. 

Again she returned to her chamber, and to bed ; but repose 
was a stranger for the rest of the night. Her mind was more 
disquieted than ever. She thought of the danger that threat- 
ened the lives of thousands of her countrymen, and of the ruin 
that impended over the whole land. 

Something must be done, and that immediately, to avert 
this widespread destruction. Should she awaken her husband 
and inform him ? That would be to place him in special 
jeopardy, by rendering him a partaker of her secret ; and he 
might, too, be less prudent and wary than herself. No, come 
what might, she would encounter the risk alone. After a 
petition for heavenly guidance, her resolution was formed; 
and she waited with composure, though sleep was impossible, 
till the dawn of day. Then she waked her husband, and 
informed him that flour was needed for the use of the house- 
hold, and that it was necessary that she should go to Frank- 
ford to procure it. This was no uncommon occurrence ; and 
her declining the attendance of the maid servant excited little 
surprise. Taking the bag with her, she walked through the 
snow, having stopped first at headquarters, obtained access to 
General Howe, and secured his written permission to pass the 
British lines. 

The feelings of a wife and mother, one whose religion was 



A HEROINE OF THE REVOLUTION. 203 

that of love, and whose life was but a quiet round of domestic 
duty, bound on an enterprise so hazardous, and uncertain 
whether her life might not be the forfeit, may be better 
imagined than described. Lydia reached Frankford, distant 
four or five miles, and deposited her bag at the mill. Now com- 
menced the dangers of her undertaking; for she pressed forward 
with all haste toward the outposts of the American army. 

Her determination was to apprise General Washington of 
the danger. She was met on her way by an American officer 
who had been selected by Washington to gain information re- 
specting the movements of the enemy. According to some 
authorities, this was Lieutenant-Colonel Craig, of the Light 

Horse. 

He immediately recognized her, and inquired whither she 
was going. In reply she prayed him to alight and walk with 
her; which he did, ordering his men to keep in sight. To him 
she disclosed the secret, after having obtained from him a 
solemn promise not to betray her individually, since the British 
might take vengeance on her and her family. The officer 
thanked her for her timely warning, and directed her to go to 
a house near at hand, where she might get something to eat. 
But Lydia preferred returning at once, and did so ; while the 
officer made all haste to the commander-in-chief. Preparations 
were immediately made to give the enemy a fitting reception. 
With a heart lightened and filled with thankfulness, the in- 
trepid woman pursued her way homeward, carrying the bag of 
flour which had served as the ostensible object of her journey. 
None suspected the grave, demure Quakeress of having 
snatched from the English their anticipated victory. Her de- 
meanor was, as usual, quiet, orderly, subdued, and she attended 
to the duties of her family with her wonted composure. But 
her heart beat, as, late on the appointed night, she watched 
from her window the departure of the army — on what secret 
expedition bound she knew too well ! 

She listened breathlessly to the sound of their footsteps and 
the trampling of horses, till it died away in the distance, and 



204 VALIANT EXPLOITS. 

silence reigned through the city. Time never appeared to 
pass so slowly as during the interval which elapsed between 
the marching out and return of the British troops. When at 
last the distant roll of the drum proclaimed their approach; 
when the sounds came nearer and nearer, and Lydia, who was 
watching at the window, saw the troops pass in martial order, 
the agony of anxiety she felt was too much for her strength, 
and she retreated from her post, not daring to ask a question 
or manifest the least curiosity as to the event. A sudden and 
loud knock at her door was not calculated to lessen her appre- 
hensions. She felt that the safety of her family depended on 
her self-possession at this critical moment. The visitor was 
the Adjutant-General, who summoned her to his apartment. 
With a pale cheek, but composed — for she had placed her trust 
in a higher power — Lydia obeyed the summons. 

The officer's face was clouded and his expression stern. He 
locked the door, with an air of mystery, when Lydia entered, 
and motioned her to a seat. After a moment of silence, he 
said, "Were any of your family up, Lydia, on the night when 
I received company at this house?" "No, they all retired at 
eight o'clock." " It is very strange," said the officer, and mused 
a few minutes ; "you, I know, Lydia, were asleep; for I knocked 
at your door three times before you heard me; yet, it is cer- 
tain that we were betrayed. I am altogether at a loss to 
conceive who could have given the information of our intended 
attack, to General Washington! On arriving at his encamp- 
ment we found his cannon mounted, his troops under arms, 
and so prepared at every point to receive us, that we have been 
compelled to march back, like a parcel of fools, without injur- 
ing our enemy. It is not known whether the officer ever dis- 
covered to whom he was indebted for the disappointment. But 
the pious Quakeress blessed God for her preservation, and 
rejoiced that it was not necessary for her to utter an untruth 
in her own defence. And all who admire examples of courage 
and patriotism, especially those who enjoy the fruits of them, 
must honor the name of Lydia Darrah. 



SER GEANT J A SPER. 
SERGEANT JASPER. 



205 




ILLIAM JASPER was a martyr to free- 
dom. The Emerald Isle, that garden spot 
of beauty, chivalry and song, a land or- 
dained by the Creator, in his wise benefi- 
cence, for a higher destiny than she has 
ever yet occupied, gave birth to this 
youthful hero of the Revolution. The 
annals of American history afford no 
brighter example of heroism, and fearless devotion to our 
sacred colonies; such boldness of execution and indomitable 
will, as is exhibited in the temperament and character of our 
beloved Jasper; well may we exclaim : — 

" He tore aside the azure robe of night, 
And planted here the glorious star and stripe ! " 

From the land of his nativity, he emigrated at an early age 
to South Carolina, where he married and settled in one of the 
interior districts of that State, some time previous to the bloody 
era of the Revolution. The first well authenticated record that 
we can trace of him, where he occupied an enviable position, 
was at the defence of Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan's Island, near 
Charleston, on the 28th of June, 1776. Here, where the gen- 
erous and valiant had been gathered to seek honorable justice 
and preserve the name of liberty, he wore proudly the laurel 
wreath. Amid the desolation and havoc of that ever-memor- 
able conflict, which, for a time, cast a gloomy shadow over the 
manly heart of many a true soldier, did he portray all the 
noble qualities which Nature had bestowed upon him. When 
the battle appeared as one universal scene of struggle and 
dismay, and the moment for action had arrived, a cannon ball 
struck the flagstaff, that signal of the brave, and bore it to the 
earth. One continued shout of victory was heard from the 
enemy, amid the volleys of artillery and the density of smoke. 
But Providence, that presides over the destinies of war, had 



206 VALIANT EXPLOITS. 

decreed otherwise. At another instant, Jasper leaped the ram- 
parts, seized the ensign already crimsoned with the blood of 
the dying and dead, placed it on his spontoon, unfurled it to 
the breeze, and cried aloud, when danger threatened and peril 
was nigh, " Heaven save liberty and my country." Who can 
recall such an achievement, and such unfading zeal, without 
a tribute of praise ? 

The brave Carolinians echoed his name far and near, with 
gratitude and honor. His patriotism and warm benevolence 
of heart won the lasting affection of his countrymen. He was 
associated with all that was bright and beautiful. So con- 
spicuous was this daring deed among all, that Governor Rut- 
ledge visited Fort Moultrie, and generously offered him a 
commission. "You have won a sword, sir, and you must 
wear it," said the Governor. " Nay, sir," replied our gallant 
hero, " I am not worthy of the trust ; adversity has been my 
schoolmaster — liberty my only schoolmistress. I cannot 
mingle with those who are superior to me in education and 
manners, without exposing myself to deserved contempt. Let 
me alone ; let me serve my country in the way that suits me 
best, as an humble and devoted laborer in the cause of freedom." 
After much reluctance he accepted the gift, and bore it with 
distinguished ability. Passing over many traditionary accounts 
of his discipline and valor, we will glance at those more promi- 
nent in his character. 

Jasper having learned that a number of American prisoners 
were to be conveyed from Ebenezer, a British garrison a short 
distance from Savannah, he at once determined to rescue them. 
He and Sergeant Newton, another son of the Revolution, 
arranged to capture them from the guard who had them in 
charge, or die in the struggle. All their plans were, how- 
ever, unfortunate in execution, until their arrival at a spring, 
where the prisoners had been carried for the purpose of drink. 
Locating themselves in thick ambush, which surrounded the 
" Spa," they remained in silence, with a watchful eye for the 
men, as they approached. 



SER GEANT JASPER. 207 

They soon arrived at the place of destination, and, having 
placed a sentinel on guard, they prepared to fill their canteens. 
Suddenly, Jasper and Newton sprang upon the astonished 
enemy, grasped their muskets, which they had placed against 
a neighboring tree, and shot the sentinel. A dreadful conflict 
ensued between the British soldiers and the young Americans, 
which proved victorious to the latter, the former having the 
advantage of numbers and skill. Jasper rescued the prison- 
ers, unchained them, crossed the river, and joined the army 
at Purisburg. 

We cannot reflect upon such a perilous adventure without 
the highest award of merit ; had it occurred in the palmy 
days of Napoleon, it would have gained for him imperishable 
fame and unceasing admiration, for he lived for his country, 
and for freedom he died. But we hasten our sketch to the 
closing act in the drama of^he life of Jasper. 

On the 9th October, 1^99, at the disastrous attack upon the 
British lines at Savannah, he again attempted to struggle for 
civil and religious liberty, and to preserve his untarnished 
reputation ; but, alas ! his desires were unrealized, and he fell a 
victim to devotion's holy cause. In a desperate action to 
regain the colors entrusted to him by Mrs. Elliott, and which 
had been carried bravely, in the early part of the contest, by 
Lieutenants Bushe and Hume, he was about to seize them 
when a ball struck him, and he fell to the earth. " Take my 
sword to my father," said he, " and tell him it was never dis- 
honored; tell the poor old man that his son forgot not his 
country nor his sire ; tell him, above all, that he died in peace 
with all mankind, and with the darling hope of a glorious 
resurrection. Bear my respect to the giver of this flag, and 
tell her I did preserve it ; tell all my friends who shall re- 
member to ask for me, that their poor friend has fought his 
last fight, has struck his last blow, and may the blessings of 
Providence rest upon my country and her cause." 

So died lamented Jasper. Our very soil is enriched with 
his life blood. Raise high your monuments to his virtue, and 



208 



VALIANT EXPL OITS. 



crown them with the emblems of the brave. Let his deeds be 
inspiration for others who admire their native land. Visit in 
your wanderings the now neglected " Spa," and there refresh 
your sight and memory with the associations of the scene. 
Let not time blot from your memories, fair readers, the name 
of Sergeant Jasper, the friend of liberty — unsullied patriot — 
and true defender of our rights. Truly, 

" None knew thee but to love thee, 
Or named thee but to praise." 

— Southern Patriot. 



MILES STANDISH. 




ILES STANDISH was a soldier of New 
England, born in Lancashire, England, 
about 1584, died in Duxbury, Mass., Octo- 
ber 3d, 1656. He had served in the Neth- 
erlands, and on coming to Plymouth with 
the first company, in 1620, was chosen Cap- 
tain by the Pilgrims. He had great cour- 
age, energy and determination, with a fiery 
temper, and rendered important service to the early settlers. 
He commanded frequent expeditions against the Indians 
who annoyed the settlements, and by the boldness and skill 
of his attacks inspired them with great awe of his military 
prowess. During his service with the Plymouth Colony, he 
conceived a high admiration for " Priscilla, the Puritan maiden," 
but being "a maker of war and not a maker of phrases," he 
delegated his young friend, John Alden, to solicit for him, in 
marriage, the hand of Priscilla. 

The fair-haired, taciturn young stripling, accordingly, pro- 
ceeded on his errand, but he did not embellish the theme nor 
array it in beautiful phrases, as Standish had desired. " He 
came straight to the point and blurted it out like a school- 



MILES STANDISH. 209 

boy," and finally received for an answer, "Why don't you 
speak for yourself, John ?" On hearing of his rejection, Miles 
Standish resolved to devote himself, henceforth, to the defence 
of the Colony against the Indians. 

Meanwhile the stalwart Miles Standish was marching steadily north- 
ward, 
Winding through forest and swamp, and along the trend of the sea- 
shore, 
All day long, with hardly a path, the fire of his anger 
Burning and crackling within, and the sulphurous odor of powder 
Seeming more sweet to his nostrils than all the scents of the forest. 
Silent and moody he went, and much he revolved his discomfort : 
He who was used to success and to easy victories always, 
Thus to be flouted, rejected, and laughed to scorn by a maiden ; 
Thus to be mocked and betrayed by the friend whom most he had 

trusted ! 
Ah ! 't was too much to be borne, and he fretted and chafed in his 
armor ! 
" I alone am to blame," he muttered, " for mine was the folly ! 
What has a rough old soldier, grown grim and gray in the harness, 
Used to the camp and its ways, to do with the wooing of maidens ? 
'T was but a dream — let it pass — let it vanish like so many others ! 
What I thought was a flower is only a weed and is worthless ; 
Out of my heart will I pluck it, and throw it away, and henceforward 
Be but a fighter of battles, a lover and wooer of dangers !" 
Thus he revolved in his mind his sorry defeat and discomfort, 
While he was marching by day or lying at night in the forest, 
Looking up at the trees and the constellations beyond them. 

After a three days' march he came to an Indian encampment 
Pitched on the edge of a meadow, between the sea and the forest ; 
Women at work by the tents, and the warriors, horrid with war paint, 
Seated about a fire, and smoking and talking together ; 
Who, when they saw from afar the sudden approach of the white man, 
Saw the flash of the sun on breastplate, and sabre, and musket, 
Straightway leaped to their feet, and two, from among them, advancing, 
Came to parley with Standish, and offer him furs as a present ; 
Friendship was in their looks, but in their hearts there was hatred. 
Braves of the tribe were these, and brothers gigantic in stature, 
Huge as Goliath of Gath, or the terrible Og, King of Bashan ; 
One was Pecksuot named, and the other was called Wattawamat. 

14 



210 VALIANT EXPL OITS. 

Round their necks were suspended their knives, in scabbards of 

wampum, 
Two-edged, trenchant knives, with points as sharp as a needle; 
Other arms had they none, for they were cunning and crafty. 

"Welcome English," for these words they had learned from the traders 
Touching at times on the coast, to barter and chaffer for peltries. 
Then, in their native tongue, they began to parley with Standish, 
Through his guide and interpreter, Hobomok, friend of the white man, 
Begging for blankets and knives, but mostly for muskets and powder, 
Kept by the white man, they said, concealed, with the plague, in his 

cellars, 
Ready to be let loose, and destroy his brother, the red man ! 
But when Standish refused, and said he would give them the Bible, 
Suddenly changing their tone, they began to boast and to bluster. 

Then Wattawamat advanced with a stride in front of the other, 
And with a lofty demeanor, thus vauntingly spoke to the Captain : — 

" Now Wattawamat can see, by the fiery eyes of the Captain, 
Angry is he in his heart ; but the heart of the brave Wattawamat 
Is not afraid at the sight. He was not born of woman, 
But on a mountain, at night, from an oak tree riven by lightning." 
Forth he sprang, at a bound, with all his weapons about him, 
Shouting, " Who is there here to fight with the brave Wattawamat ?" 
Then he unsheathed his knife, and whetting the blade on his left hand, 
Held it aloft and displayed a woman's face on the handle, 
Saying with bitter expression and look of sinister meaning : 

" I have another at home, with the face of a man on the handle ; 
By and by they shall marry ; and there will be plenty of children ! " 

Then stood Pecksuot forth, self-vaunting, insulting Miles Standish ; 
While with his fingers he patted the knife that hung at his bosom, 
Drawing it half from his sheath, and plunging it back as he muttered : 
" By and by it shall see ; it shall eat ; ah, ah ! but shall not speak ! 
This is the mighty Captain the white men have sent to destroy us ! 
He is a little man ; let him go and work with the women ! " 

Meanwhile Standish had noted the faces and figures of Indians 
Peeping and creeping about from bush to tree in the forest, 
Feigning to look for game, with arrows set in their bow-strings, 
Drawing about him still closer and closer the net of their ambush. 
But undaunted he stood, and dissembled and treated them smoothly ; 
So the old chronicles say, that were writ in the days of the fathers. 
But when he heard their defiance, the boast, the taunt, and the insult, 
All the hot blood of his race, of Sir Hugh and of Thurston de Standish, 



MILES STANDISH. 211 

Boiled and beat in his heart, and swelled in the veins of his temples. 
Headlong he leaped on the boaster, and, snatching his knife from its 

scabbard, 
Plunged it into his heart, and reeling backward, the savage 
Fell with his face to the sky, and a fiendish fierceness upon it. 

Straight there arose from the forest the awful sound of the war-whoop, 
And, like a flurry of snow on the whistling wind of December, 
Swift and sudden and keen came a flight of feathery arrows. 
Then came a cloud of smoke, and out of the cloud came the lightning, 
Out of lightning, thunder; and death, unseen, ran before it. 
Frightened, the savages fled for shelter in swamp and in thicket, 
Hotly pursued and beset ; but their Sachem, the brave Wattawamat, 
Fled not ; he was dead. Unswerving and swift had a bullet 
Passed through his brain, and he fell with both hands clutching the 

greensward, 
Seeming in death to hold back from his foe the land of his fathers. 

There on the flowers of the meadow the warriors lay, and above them, 
Silent, with folded arms, stood Hobomok, friend of the white man. 
Smiling, at length he exclaimed to the stalwart captain of Plymouth : 
"Pecksuot bragged very loud, of his courage, his strength and his 
stature, 
Mocked the great Captain, and called him a little man ; but I see now 
Big enough have you been to lay him speechless before you! " 

Thus the first battle was fought and won by the stalwart Miles 

Standish. 
When the tidings thereof were brought to the village of Plymouth, 
And, as a trophy of war, the head of the brave Wattawamat 
Scowled from the roof of the fort, which at once was a church and a 

fortress, 
All who beheld it rejoiced, and praised the Lord and took courage. 
Only Priscilla averted her face from the spectre of terror, 
Thanking God in her heart that she had not married Miles Standish ; 
Shrinking, fearing almost, lest, coming home from his battles, 
He should lay claim to her hand as the prize and reward of his valor. 

Month after month passed away, and in Autumn the ships of the 

merchants 
Came with kindred and friends, with cattle and corn for the Pilgrims. 
All in the village was peace, the men were intent on their labors, 
Busy with hewing and building, with garden plot and with mere-stead, 
Busy with breaking the glebe and mowing the grass in the meadows, 
Searching the sea for its fish, and hunting the deer in the forest. 



212 VALIANT EXPL OITS. 

All in the village was peace ; but at times the rumor of warfare 

Filled the air with alarm and the apprehension of danger. 

Bravely the stalwart Miles Standish was scourging the land with his 

forces, 
Waxing valiant in fight, and defeating the alien armies, 
Till his name had become a sound of fear to the nations. 

Henry W. Longfellow. 



"WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND THEY 
ARE OURS." 

— Oliver Hazard Perry. 



" September the tenth, full well, I ween, 
In eighteen hundred and thirteen ; 
The weather mild, the sky serene ; 

Commanded by bold Perry, 
Our saucy fleet at anchor lay 
In safety, moored in Put-in-Bay. 
'Twixt sunrise and the break of day 
The British fleet 
We chanced to meet ; 
Our Admiral thought he would them greet 

With a welcome on Lake Erie." 




3 ERRY'S decisive victory over the English fleet 
in the Battle of Lake Erie, during the War 
of 1812, was of immense consequence, both 
in its material results and in its moral effect. 
It gave us complete command of all the 
upper lakes, prevented any fear of invasion 
from that quarter, increased our prestige with 
the foe and our confidence in ourselves, and 
ensured the conquest of Upper Canada. 

Commodore Perry's name is more widely known than that 
of any other commander of the war. The courage with which 
his vessel, the " Lawrence," was defended has hardly ever 
been surpassed, and may fairly be called heroic. He showed 
indomitable pluck and readiness to adapt himself to every 
circumstance. His energy and activity deserve all praise, not 




PERRY LEAVING THE "LAWRENCE" TO BRING THE "NIAGARA " INTO ACTION. 



PERRY'S VICTORY. 2Y6 

only for his success in collecting sailors and vessels and 
building brigs, but especially for the manner in which he 
succeeded in getting them on the lake. 

The following admirable word painting of the concluding 
scenes of this memorable conflict, from the pen of that accom- 
plished historian, J. T. Headley, will be read with interest — even 
by those who are already familiar with its details and results : — 

" As the sun went down over the still lake, his last beams 
looked on a mournful spectacle. Those ships, stripped of 
their spars and canvas, looked as if they had been swept by a 
hurricane, while desolation covered their decks. At twilight, 
the seamen who had fallen on board the American fleet were 
committed to the deep, and the solemn burial service of the 
Episcopal Church read over them. 

The uproar of the day had ceased, and silence rested on the 
two squadrons riding quietly at anchor, broken only by the 
stifled groans of the wounded, that were echoed from ship to 
ship. As Perry sat that night on the quarter-deck of the 
" Lawrence," conversing with his few remaining officers, while 
ever and anon the moans of his brave comrades were borne to 
his ear, he was solemn and subdued. The exciting scene 
through which he had safely passed, the heavy load taken 
from his heart, the reflection that his own life had been spared, 
and the consciousness that his little brother was slumbering 
sweetly and unhurt in his hammock beside him, awakened 
emotions of gratitude to God. 

It had been a proud day for him ; and as he lay that night 
and thought what a change a few hours had wrought in his 
fortunes, feelings of exultation might swell his bosom. Such 
unshaken composure, such gallant bearing, such stern resolu- 
tion and steadiness and tenacity of purpose in a young man of 
twenty-seven, in his first battle, exhibit a marvelous strength 
of character, and one wonders more at him than at his success. 

It was a great victory ; and as the news spread, bonfires, 
illuminations, the firing of cannon and shouts of excited multi- 
tudes announced the joy and exultation of the nation. 



214 VALIANT EXPLOITS. 

The gallant bearing of Perry, his daring passage in an open 
boat, through the enemy's fire, to the " Niagara ;" the motto on 
his flag; the manner in which he carried his vessel alone 
through the enemy's line, and then closed in half-pistol shot ; 
his laconic account of the victory in a letter to the Secretary 
of the Navy : " We have met the enemy and they are 
ours !' ! furnished endless themes for discussion and eulogy, and 
he suddenly found himself in the front rank of heroes. 

The day after the battle the funeral of the officers of the 
two fleets took place. A little opening on the margin of 
the bay, a wild and solitary spot, was selected as the place 
of interment. It was a beautiful Autumn day ; not a breath of 
air ruffled the surface of the lake or moved the still forests 
that fringed that lovely clearing. The sun shone brightly 
down on the new-made graves, and not a sound disturbed the 
Sabbath stillness that rested on forest and lake. The fallen 
officers, each in his appropriate uniform, were laid on plat- 
forms made to receive them, and placed with their hands 
across their breasts in the barges. As these were rowed 
gently away, the boats fell in behind, in long procession, and 
the whole swept slowly and sadly toward the place of burial. 
The flags drooped mournfully in the still air ; the dirge to 
which the oars kept time rose and fell in solemn strains over 
the water, while minute guns from the various vessels blended 
their impressive harmony with the scene. 

The day before had been one of strife and carnage ; but 
those who had closed in mortal hate now mourned, like a band 
of brothers, for their fallen leaders ; and gathering together 
round the place of burial, gazed a last farewell, and firing one 
volley over the nameless graves, turned sadly away. There, 
in that wild spot, with the sullen waves to sing their perpetual 
dirge, they slept the sleep of the brave. They had fought 
gallantly, and it mattered not to them the victory or defeat, 
for they had gone to that still land where human sacrifices are 
forgotten, and the clangor of battle never comes." 

J. T. Headley. 



TAYLOR AT B UENA VISTA. 215 

TAYLOR AT BUENA VISTA. 



H. W. HILLIARD. 




ERH APS in the history of the world the power 
of a single will was never more triumphantly- 
exhibited than it was at Buena Vista. Taylor 
had been advised to fall back, for safety, to 
Monterey, stripped of some of his best troops, 
far advanced into the enemy's country, with 
an army numbering only about four thousand, 
and but one-third of them regulars ; with no 
reserved force to support him; with the 
intelligence brought in that Santa Anna, at the head of twenty 
thousand men, was marching against him, he took his position 
in a gorge of the Sierra Madre, and determined to meet the 
shock of battle. He would neither retreat nor resign; he 
would fight. 

There flashed forth a great spirit! The battle came; the 
odds were fearful; but who could doubt the result when 
American troops stood in that modern Thermopylae, and in 
the presence of such a leader ? It was in vain that Mexican 
artillery played upon their ranks, or Mexican infantry bore 
down with the bayonet, or Mexican lancers charged. The 
spirit of the great leader pervaded the men who fought with 
him, and a single glance of his eye could reanimate a wavering 
column. 

Like Napoleon at the Danube, he held his men under fire 
because he was exposed to it himself; and like him, wherever 
he rode along the lines, mounted on a white charger, a 
conspicuous mark for balls, men would stand and be shot 
down, but they would not give way. Of Taylor, on that day, 
it may be said, as it has been said of Lannes at Montebello : 
" He was the rock of that battle-field, around which men stood 



216 VALIANT EXPLOITS. 

with a tenacity which nothing could move, If he had fallen, 
in five minutes that battle would have been a rout." That 
battle closed General Taylor's military career; and that battle 
alone gives him a title to immortality. 



A COURAGEOUS WOMAN. 



MADAME DE GENLIS. 




ARCAS was the widow of Balahac, the king of 
Carcassonne, who died during the siege of that 
city. She was a woman of uncommon courage. 
A representation of her is to be seen over the 
gate of this famed old city, with the inscription : 
" Carcassimi ; " the corruption of which has 
undoubtedly given name to the place. She 
undertook to avenge her husband's death ; and 
sustained the siege with so much bravery, that Charlemagne 
left her in possession of the sovereignty and jurisdiction of 
the city. Afterward the Saracens came, and insulted the 
Countess of Carcassonne under her own walls ; jesting at the 
idea of a female warrior, and recommending her to spin rather 
than to fight. 

Arming herself, therefore, with a lance, to which she affixed, 
as to a distaff, a quantity of hemp, leaving only the point bare, 
she set fire to it and rushed into the midst of the enemy, whom 
she filled with terror and put to flight. Her shield and 
victorious lance are yet shown at Carcassonne ; the govern- 
ment of which, joined to her personal glory, induced the 
handsomest and bravest knights of the time to solicit her hand, 
which she eventually bestowed on a young Frenchman of the 
name of Roger. 



THE CAPTURE OF TICONDEROGA. 217 

THE CAPTURE OF TICONDEROGA. 



GEORGE BANCROFT. 




hold the city of New York, its harbor, and 
the river Hudson, and by means of the 
fortresses on the lakes, to keep open a free 
communication with Canada, was the scheme 
by which it was hoped to insulate and re- 
duce New England. On Saturday, the 29th 
of April, 1775, Samuel Adams and John 
Hancock, as they passed through Hartford, 
had secretly met the Governor and Council of Connecticut, to 
promote the surprise and capture of Ticonderoga, which had 
been planned by the Green Mountain Boys. 

Ethan Allen was encouraged by an express messenger to 
hold his forces in readiness, and the necessary funds were fur- 
nished by the treasury of Connecticut. Sixteen men of that 
colony, leaving Salisbury, were joined in Massachusetts by 
John Brown (who had first proposed the enterprise in a letter 
from Montreal), by Colonel James Eaton, and by about fifty 
volunteers from Berkshire. 

At Bennington they found Ethan Allen, who was certainly 
" the proper man to head his own people." Repairing to the 
north, he sent the alarm through the hills of Vermont, and on 
Sunday, the 7th of May, about one hundred Green Mountain 
Boys, and nearly fifty soldiers from Massachusetts, under the 
command of Easton, rallied at Castleton. Just then arrived 
Benedict Arnold, with only one attendant. He brought a 
commission from the Massachusetts Committee of Safety, 
which was disregarded, and the men unanimously elected 
Ethan Allen as their chief. 

On the 8th of May the party began the march ; late on the 
9th they arrived at Orwell. With the utmost difficulty a few 
boats were collected ; and eighty-three men, crossing the lake 



218 VALIANT EXPL OITS. 

with Allen, landed near the garrison. The boats were sent 
back to Seth Warner, and the rear guarded ; but if they were 
to be waited for there could be no surprise. The men were, 
therefore, at once drawn up in three ranks, and as the first 
beams of the morning broke upon the mountain peaks, Allen 
addressed them : " Friends and fellow-soldiers : We must, this 
morning, quit our pretensions to valor, or possess ourselves of 
this fortress ; and inasmuch as it is a desperate attempt, I do 
not urge it on, contrary to your will. You that will undertake 
voluntarily poise your firelocks." 

At the word every firelock was poised. " Face to the right," 
cried Allen, and placing himself at the centre of the file, 
Arnold keeping emulously at his side, he marched to the gate. 
It was shut, but the wicket was open. The sentry snapped a 
fuse at him. The Americans rushed into the fort, darted upon 
the guards, and raising the Indian war whoop, such as had not 
been heard there since the days of Montcalm, formed on the 
parade in a hollow square. 

One of the sentries, after wounding an officer, and being 
slightly wounded himself, cried out for quarter, and showed 
the way to the commanding officer. " Come forth instantly, 
or I will sacrifice the whole garrison!" cried Ethan Allen, as 
he reached the door. 

At this Delaplace, the commander, came out undressed, with 
his breeches in his hand. " Deliver to me the fort instantly," 
said Allen. " By what authority ?" asked Delaplace. " In the 
name of the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress !" 
answered Allen. 

Delaplace began to speak again, but was peremptorily inter- 
rupted, and at sight of Allen's drawn sword near his head, he 
gave up the garrison, ordering his men to be paraded without 
arms. 

Thus was Ticonderoga taken, in the gray of the ioth of May. 
What cost the British nation eight millions sterling, a succession 
of campaigns, and many lives, was won in ten minutes by a 
few undisciplined men, without the loss of life or limb. 



THE KEEPING OF THE BRIDGE. 219 

The Americans gained with the fortress nearly fifty persons, 
more than one hundred pieces of cannon, one thirteen-inch 
mortar, and a number of swivels, stores and small arms. To a 
detachment under Seth Warner, Crown Point, with its garrison 
of twelve men, surrendered upon the first summons. Another 
party succeeded in making a prisoner of Skeene, a dangerous 
British agent, and in getting possession of Skeensborough. 

Messengers carried to the Continental Congress news of the 
great acquisition which inaugurated the day of its assembling. 
" A war has begun," wrote Joseph Warren, from the Massa- 
chusetts Congress, " but I hope, after a full conviction, both of 
our ability and resolution to maintain our rights, Britain will 
act with necessary wisdom. This I most heartily wish, as I 
feel a warm affection for the parent State." 



THE KEEPING OF THE BRIDGE. 




T is recorded in the annals of ancient Rome, that 
Horatius, assisted by Lartius and Herminius, 
defended the Sublician bridge over the Tiber, 
against the whole Etruscan army, under Por- 
sena, while the Romans broke down the bridge 
behind the " dauntless three." When the work 
was nearly finished, Horatius sent back his 
two companions. As soon as the bridge was 
quite destroyed, he plunged into the stream 
and swam across to the city in safety, amid the arrows of the 
enemy. Janiculum, referred to below, is one of the ancient 
hills of Rome, and is separated from the main city by the 
river Tiber. Porsena took this stronghold, and compelled the 
Romans to retreat over the bridge into the city. Mount Jani- 
culum is best known in our time as being the hill on which 
the world-famous St. Peter's Cathedral is situated. The 
Vatican, the official residence of the Pope, is also located here, 
and adjoins the latter. 



2 20 VALIANT EX PL OITS. 

The Rhamnenses, Tatienses and Lucerenses, were the three 
orginal tribes into which the Romans were divided by Romulus, 
the founder of the city. The term " Fathers " was frequently 
applied to the Roman Senators, since they were supposed to 
exercise a fatherly care and influence over the destinies of their 
charge. 

In the Etruscan language, Lars meant " Mighty Chief," or 
Lord. Lord Macaulay has given us such a soul-stirring poem, 
describing this heroic event, that one is almost compelled to 
accord him as high a rank as a poet as he occupies as a prose 
writer : — 

Out spake the Consul roundly : 

" The bridge must straight go down ; 

For, since Janiculum is lost, 

Naught else can save the town." 

Then out spake brave Horatius, 

The captain of the gate, 
" To every man upon this earth 

Death cometh soon or late, 
And how can man die better 

Than facing fearful odds 
For the ashes of his fathers 

And the temples of his gods ? 
Hew down the bridge, Sir Consul, 

With all the speed you may ; 
I, with two more to help me, 

Will hold the foe in play ; 
In yon straight path a thousand 

May well be stopped by three ; 
Now, who will stand on either hand, 

And keep the bridge with me ? " 

Then out spake Spurius Lartius — 
A Rhamnian, proud, was he — 
" Lo ! I will stand on thy right hand 
And keep the bridge with thee." 
And out spoke strong Herminius — 
Of Tatian blood was he — 
" I will abide on thy left side, 

And keep the bridge with thee." 



THE KEEPING OF THE BRIDGE. 221 

" Horatius," quoth the Consul, 
" As thou say'st, so let it be ;" 

And straight against that great array- 
Forth went the dauntless three ; 

For Romans, in Rome's quarrel, 
Spared neither land nor gold, 

Nor son nor wife, nor limb nor life, 
In the brave days of old. 

Meanwhile, the Tuscan army, 

Right glorious to behold, 
Came flashing back the noonday light, 
Rank behind rank, like surges bright 

Of a broad sea of gold. 
Four hundred trumpets sounded 

A peal of warlike glee, 
As that great host, with measured tread, 
And spears advanced, and ensigns spread, 
Rolled slowly toward the bridge's head, 

Where stood the dauntless three. 

The three stood calm and silent, 

And looked upon their foes, 
And a great shout of laughter 

From all the vanguard rose. 
But soon Etruria's noblest 

Felt their hearts sink, to see 
On the earth the bloody corpses, 

In the path of the dauntless three ! 

Meanwhile, the axe and lever 
Have manfully been plied, 
And now the bridge hangs tottering 
Above the boiling tide ; 
" Come back, come back, Horatius ! " 

Loud cried the Fathers all ; 
" Back, Lartius ! back, Herminius ! 
Back, ere the ruin fall!" 

Back darted Spurius Lartius ; 

Herminius darted back ; 
And, as they passed, beneath their feet 

They felt the timbers crack. 



222 VALIANT EXPLOITS. 

But when they turned their faces, 

And on the further shore 
Saw brave Horatius stand alone, 

They would have crossed once more. 
But, with a crash like thunder, 

Fell every loosened beam, 
And, like a dam, the mighty wreck 

Lay right athwart the stream ; 
And a loud shout of triumph 

Rose from the walls of Rome, 
As to the highest turret tops 

Was splashed the yellow foam. 

Alone stood brave Horatius, 

But constant still, in mind ; 
Thrice thirty thousand foes before, 
And the broad flood behind. 
" Down with him ! " cried false Sextus, 

With a smile on his pale face ; 
" Now yield thee ! " cried Lars Porsena, 
" Now yield thee to our grace." 

Round turned he, as not deigning 

Those craven ranks to see ; 
Naught spake he to Lars Porsena, 

To Sextus naught spake he ; 
But he saw on Palatinus 

The white porch of his home ; 
And he spoke to the noble river 

That rolls by the towers of Rome ; 
" O, Tiber ! Father Tiber ! 

To whom the Romans pray ! 
A Roman's life, a Roman's arms, 

Take thou in charge this day ! " 
So he spake, and, speaking, sheathed 

The good sword by his side, 
And, with his harness on his back, 

Plunged headlong in the tide. 

No sound of joy or sorrow 

Was heard from either bank ; 
But friends and foes, in dumb surprise, 
With parted lips, and straining eyes, 
Stood gazing where he sank ; 



"DEAD ON THE FIELD OF BONOK." 223 

And when, above the surges 

They saw his crest appear, 
All Rome sent forth a rapturous cry, 
And even the ranks of Tuscany 

Could scarce forbear a cheer. 

" Out on him ! " quoth false Sextus, 
" Will not the villain drown ? 
But for this stay, ere close of day, 
We would have sacked the town ! " 
" Heaven help him ! " quoth Lars Porsena, 
"And bring him safe to shore ; 
For such a gallant feat of .arms 
Was never seen before." 

And now the ground he touches, 

Now on dry earth he stands ; 
Now round him throng the Fathers, 

To press his gory hands ; 
And now, with shouts and clapping, 

And noise of weeping loud, 
He enters through the river-gate, 

Borne by the joyous crowd. 



CATHERINE VASSENT. 



E. PAXTON HOOD, D. D. 




ATHERINE VASSENT, the daughter of a 
French peasant, exhibited at the age of seven- 
teen, and in the humble capacity of a menial, a 
proof of intrepid, persevering sympathy which 
ranks her with the noblest of her sex. A com- 
mon sewer, of considerable depth, having been 
opened at Noyon, for the purpose of repairs, 
four men passing by, late in the evening, un- 
fortunately fell in, no precaution having been taken to prevent 
so probable an accident. 

It was almost midnight before their situation was known; 
and besides the difficulty of procuring assistance at that un- 



224 VALIANT EXPLOITS. 

seasonable hour, every one present was intimidated from 
exposing himself to similar danger by attempting to rescue 
these unfortunates, who appeared already in a state of suffoca- 
tion from the mephitic vapor. Fearless or ignorant of danger, 
and irresistibly impelled by the cries of their wives and chil- 
dren, who surrounded the spot, Catherine Vassent, a servant 
in the town, insisted on being lowered, without delay, into the 
noxious opening, and fastened a cord, with which she had fur- 
nished herself previous to her descent, around two of their 
bodies. Assisted by those above, she restored them to life 
and to their families; but in descending a second time, her 
breath began to fail, and after effectually securing a cord to the 
body of a third man, she had sufficient presence of mind, 
although in a fainting condition, to fix a rope firmly to her own 
hair, which hung in long, luxuriant curls around a full but 
well-formed neck. Her neighbors, who felt no inclination to 
imitate her heroism, had willingly contributed such assistance 
as they could afford, compatible with safety ; and pulling up, 
as they thought, the third man's body, were equally concerned 
and surprised to see the almost lifeless body of Catherine, sus- 
pended by the hair, and swinging by the same cord. Fresh 
air, with eau de vie, soon restored this excellent girl. 

In consequence of the delay produced by her indisposition, 
the fourth man was brought up a lifeless corpse. Such con- 
duct did not pass unnoticed. A procession of the corporation, 
and a solemn Te Deum, were celebrated on the occasion. 
Catherine received the public thanks of the Duke of Orleans, 
the Bishop of Noyon, the town magistrates, and an emblem- 
atical medal, with considerable pecuniary contributions, and a 
civic crown. To these were added the congratulations of her 
own heart, that estimable reward of a benevolent mind. 




PMT-i-IV,^ 



piGHTLYi 



i VIRTUES 




<+&> 



" Dream not of helm, and harness, 

The sign of valor true ; 
Peace hath higher tests of manhood 

Than tattle ever knew." 

— Whittier. 



PART IV. 



KNIGHTLY VIRTUES. 



FLORA MACDONALD AND THE PRETENDER. 




FTER the disastrous battle of Culloden, April 
1 6th, 1746, Prince Charles Edward, known as 
the Pretender, grandson of James II, of England, 
was compelled to flee for his life. 

He quitted the large body of horsemen who 
had accompanied him from the fatal moor, hav- 
ing resolved to make his way, with a few of his 
personal friends, to the West coast, in order to 
embark for France. Riding past the ruins of Fort Augustus, 
he halted at Invergarry, an almost deserted house of Mac- 
Donald of Glengarry. Here he was left to pursue his course, 
with two of his companions and a poor Highlander, Ned 
Burke, who had been his guide from the battle-field. On the 
second of May he was sailing in a small boat from Loch Na 
Naugh, where, nine months before, he had landed with few 
companions, but with the support of the most sanguine hopes. 
These solitary lakes and islands were now unsafe. Parties of 
soldiers penetrated into the most remote places, hunting down 
rebels and chasing women and children from their desolate 
homes. Soon after the wanderings of Charles Edward begun, 
the Duke of Cumberland had fixed his headquarters at Fort 

227 



228 KNIGHTL Y VIRTUES. 

Augustus, in the very heart of the country where the young 
prince was hiding, for whose apprehension a reward of thirty 
thousand pounds had been offered. Five months did this ill- 
fated adventurer lead a life of constant privation and alarm; 
generally evading observation; sometimes known; but never 
betrayed. When he had gained a place of shelter in the house 
of the elder Clanranald, in the Island of South Uist, he was 
soon disturbed by parties of militia who landed, and by vessels 
of war cruising about the coast. Obliged to quit his hospit- 
able abode, he wandered alone among the hills till he was 
enabled to escape. This he effected through the compassionate 
courage and sagacity of Flora MacDonald, a name ever to be 
numbered in the illustrious role of heroic women. 

Flora had just come from school at Edinburgh, and was 
visiting her kinsfolk, when the extreme peril of the prince 
became known to her and aroused her sympathies. She pro- 
posed that he should put on the clothes of a servant woman, 
and in company of a lady, as waiting maid, leave the island. 
But who had the courage ? Flora's stepfather was on the island, 
in command of a corps of soldiers, searching for the prince. 

Regardless of the certain displeasure of her stepfather, and 
the extreme peril of the undertaking, she resolved to save 
Charles Edward ; and that very night, in company with a 
trusty officer, she went among the crags of Carradale, to the 
cave where the royal fugitive was concealed. Great was the 
astonishment and delight of the Prince when he was informed 
of the plan for his escape. 

Within a day or two Flora procured a passport from her 
unsuspecting stepfather for herself, a young companion, a 
boat's crew, and Betsy Bourke, an Irish woman whom Flora 
pretended she had procured as a spinster for her mother. 
The prince, attired as Betsy Bourke, embarked with Flora 
and her companions, on the 28th of September, 1746, for the 
Island of Skye. A furious tempest tossed them about all 
night, and a band of soldiers prevented their landing in the 
morning. They finally landed near the residence of Sir Alex- 



FLORA MACDONALD AND THE PRETENDER. 229 

ander MacDonald, where the Prince was concealed in the 
cavity of a rock ; for the Laird was his enemy, and his hall was 
filled with soldiers seeking the fugitive. 

Flora touched the heart of Lady MacDonald, and by her 
aid the Prince and the maiden made a safe journey of twelve 
miles, on foot, to Potarce. There they parted forever, the 
Prince to escape to France, Flora to be soon afterward carried 
a prisoner to London and cast into the Tower. The story of 
her adventure excited the admiration of all classes ; and as she 
was not a partisan of the Pretender, nor of his religious faith, 
the nobility interfered in her behalf. 

The father of George III visited her in prison, and so much 
was he interested in her that he procured her release. While 
she remained in London her residence was surrounded by the 
carriages of the nobility ; and Lady Primrose, a friend of the 
Pretender, introduced her to Court society. 

When presented to the old King, George II, he said to her: 
" How could you dare to succor the enemy of my crown and 
kingdom ? " Flora replied, with great simplicity : " It was no 
more than I would have done for your Majesty, had you been 
in like situation." A chaise-and-four were fitted up for her 
return to Scotland, and her escort was Malcolm McLeod, who 
often said afterward : " I went to London to be hanged, but 
rode back in a chaise-and-four, with Flora MacDonald." Four 
years afterward she married Allan, the son of the Laird 
MacDonald, and became mistress of the mansion where the 
Prince passed his first night in the Island of Skye. 

In 1775 Flora and her husband, with several children, 
emigrated to North Carolina. The American Revolution just 
breaking out, and being in full sympathy with the mother 
country, she found it uncongenial in her new home, and after 
a short stay, resolved to go back again to Scotland. 

On the homeward passage the vessel was attacked by a 
French cruiser, and brave Flora, who was on deck during the 
engagement, was severely wounded in the hand. They reached 
their country, where she lived until the 5th of March, 1790. 



230 



KNIGHTLY VIRTUES. 



She was buried in the cemetery of Killmuir, in the Isle of 
Skye; her shroud was the sheet in which the Prince slept 
while under her guidance ; and three thousand persons stood 
and wept as her coffin was let down into the grave. — Selected. 



HEROIC VIRTUES OF SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. 




IR PHILIP SIDNEY, a distinguished author, 
courtier and soldier, was born at Penshurst, 
Kent, England, November 29th, 1554. 

After having successfully discharged sev- 
eral important trusts in the civil service of 
his government, both at home and abroad, 
he was sent to the Low Countries as General 
of the Horse, under his uncle, the Earl of 
Leicester, to aid the Dutch in their struggle for independence. 
The war was altogether mismanaged. The Prince of Parma, 
who commanded the troops of Spain, was an experienced 
General. Leicester was always hesitating ; sometimes suc- 
cessful, through the bravery of his captains ; but gradually 
losing fortress after fortress, and obtaining petty advantages 
with no permanent results. There was one in his army, how- 
ever, who, in this disastrous campaign, closed a short career 
of military experience, but who left a name which Englishmen 
cherish among their most eminent examples of real greatness. 
Few were the heroic deeds of Philip Sidney, but his heart was 
the seat of true heroism. The rare scholar, the accomplished 
writer, the perfect gentleman, might have been forgotten as a 
soldier, if his night march upon Axel and its daring capture 
had been his chief title to distinction. On September 22d, 
1586, a small detachment of English troops under his com- 
mand unexpectedly encountered 3000 Spaniards, who were 
marching to the relief of Zutphen, and a desperate engage- 
ment was fought under the walls of the fortress, in which the 
enemy were signally defeated. Sidney, seeing the Spanish 



MARTIN LUTHER AND CHARLES V. 



231 



leader going into battle lightly armed, was induced, by a 
chivalric spirit of emulation, to imitate his example ; and after 
a series of gallant charges, in which he had a horse killed 
under him, he received a musket ball in his left thigh. 

" While leaving the field," says Lord Brooke, " being thirsty 
with excess of bleeding, he called for drink, which was 
presently brought him ; but as he was putting the bottle to his 
lips, he saw a poor soldier carried along, who had eaten his 
last at the same feast, ghastly casting up his eyes at the same 
bottle," which Sir Philip perceiving, took it from his head 
before he drank, and delivered it to the poor man with these 
words : " Thy necessities are greater than mine." 

He lingered several weeks in great agony, and met his 
death with Christian serenity, solacing even his last hours with 
literary composition. His body was taken to London, and 
after lying in state, was interred in St. Paul's Cathedral, Feb- 
ruary 15th, 1587, and a general mourning, the first on record 
in England, was observed. - — Anonymous. 



" HERE I STAND ; I CANNOT DO OTHERWISE ; 
GOD HELP ME!" 




N the early part of the sixteenth century, there 
appeared on the stage of action, in Europe, 
two characters whose names deserve a place 
in history. One was a monarch, whose 
power and influence were vastly greater than 
those of any other living prince. He ruled, 
with a sway almost absolute, over vast mil- 
lions of the most industrious, enlightened and 
opulent people of Europe. No other com- 
mander could bring such well-trained hosts on to the battle- 
field ; no other financier could command such untold sums of 
treasure. And Europe alone would not have equaled one-half 
of the extent of his territories. 



232 KNIGHTLY VIRTUES. 

His name was pronounced with awe in all quarters of the 
globe. The swarthy East Indian and the copper-colored 
American, in their own distant but gorgeous homes, did 
homage to the mighty Emperor. His tables were adorned 
and his treasury filled with gold wrung from the unwilling but 
feeble grasp of Inca and Aztec. The mines of Mexico and 
Peru swelled his shining stores to an unapproachable mag- 
nitude. 

His men-of-war and merchant ships everywhere whitened 
the sea; the former invincible to his foes, and the latter 
groaning under their cargoes of gold. Nor had his mind been 
left unfurnished. He had been thoroughly and carefully 
educated in all the wisdom of his time, both scholastic and 
practical. 

He was an accomplished linguist, and possessed unrivaled 
skill in diplomacy. And his natural abilities were such as 
enabled him to shine in every department of kingcraft. He 
triumphed in war over the ablest sovereigns who chose to 
assail him, and at the council-board was none who could go 
beyond him in meeting emergencies. 

The other, as he tells us himself, was a peasant, whose 
ancestors had always been genuine peasants before him. He 
was an obscure subject of the great Emperor. His father 
toiled for a scanty living in the German iron mines. His 
mother worked in house and field through the weary hours of 
the livelong day. He himself was reared amid the hardest 
and sternest poverty, and when he went to school, was com- 
pelled to subsist by begging his bread from door to door ; and 
when he became an inmate of the Augustine convent, he 
undertook the humblest and most laborious tasks; took the 
lowliest place among the lowly brotherhood of monks. 

One day the great Emperor and the poor monk met. It 
was a grand council, called, in part, for the trial of the monk, 
and under the auspices of the Emperor. The latter had come 
from a remote part of his vast dominions, with all the pomp of a 
triumphal march. He had been greeted on his way by the 



"As thou (the Fnpe) hast troubled the Holy One of the Lord, may thB 
sternal fir a trouble and consume thee," 




Uottor Martin Cutftcr 

berbrannte art biefer ©telle, am 10. ©ejember 1520, 



bie 



PiipJUidje Itonnbulle. 



Luther, surrounded by his students, colleagues and towns-people, committing the Papal bull of excom- 
munication, together with the Canon law and several books of Eck and Emser, to the flames, before the 
Elster gate of Wittenberg. 

The words quoted at the top of the page were addressed by Luther to the offensive document, when in 
the act of casting it into the fire. 

A tree has since been planted on the spot, and this is now surrounded by an iron railing, to protect it 
against memento-hunters. On this enclosure there is a tablet bearing the foregoing German inscription. 



MARTIN LUTHER AND CHARLES V. 233 

huzzas of millions of subjects. He sat in the Diet, surrounded 
by a brilliant assembly of nobles, princes and kings, who all 
acknowledged his supremacy. He was at the summit of 
earthly grandeur. 

The poor monk was arraigned for heresy and obstinacy, 
tried and found guilty, and pronounced an outlaw under the 
ban of the Empire. His memorable words in that great 
assembly, when asked to retract his teaching and preaching, 
"Here I stand ; I cannot do otherwise; God help me J" are 
familiar to everybody. They are great in themselves, but 
infinitely greater when considered in connection with the man 
who used them and the occasion which called them forth. 

Luther, after struggling upward toward the light, seemed 
finally to have reached it. He at last approached it so closely 
that he broke completely away from the Pope. The bull of 
excommunication which had been issued against him he had 
publicly burned. His words against it consumed even more 
fiercely than the flames. The representatives of the Empire 
could not help noticing conduct so daring, and he was, there- 
fore, summoned to attend the " Diet " at Worms. He prepared 
to go ; and when pleaded with by his friends to stay away, he 
made the memorable reply : " Though there were as many 
devils in Worms, as there are tiles on its houses, still would I 
go." And he did go, and there stood in the presence of 
electors, bishops and prelates, defending himself and his books, 
and claiming his right to freedom of speech and conscience. 
" Athanasius against the world " was but a trifling spectacle 
compared with this. It was at the close of his defence that he 
used the words, " Here I stand ; I cannot do otherwise ; God 
help me ! " The scene, which has been called " the most 
splendid in history," was properly closed by so sublime a 
declaration. 

We are hardly able at this day to understand the peril in 
which he stood and the courage that was necessary to carry 
him through so trying an ordeal. Those days, three centuries 
and a half ago, were not such as ours. Freedom of conscience 



234 KNIGHTLY VIRTUES. 

was not one of its prerogatives and blessings. The right to 
think, speak, and act for himself was no man's privilege. 

In all the attitudes in which he is seen during those memor- 
able days, none is more striking than this one at Worms. He 
is alone, or nearly so. His cause has as yet made but little 
progress. He was in the presence of men who regarded him 
as an apostate and enemy of God. They thirsted, many of 
them, fc>r his blood ; but he did not falter. He spoke warmly, 
but collectedly. His boldness increased with his danger, until 
he became the very impersonation of moral heroism. After 
justifying his works and reaffirming his determination to stand 
by the Scriptures and his conscience, he ended all with the words 
that are so sublimely linked with the immortality of his name. 

Suppose the question had been put to some prince of the 
Empire, or some high ecclesiastical dignitary, which of the 
two men, the convicted heretic, accursed by the Pope and 
outlawed by the Empire, or the mighty Charles V, successor 
of the Csesars, was most influential ? what would have been 
the answer ? And yet, what says the world to-day ? Measure 
the lives of the two men. Weigh their deeds, the principles 
they advocated, and the policy inaugurated by each. 

Charles lived and reigned, engaged in the intrigues and 
diplomacy of his time ; schemed against Francis I, of France ; 
deceived the Pope, and was deceived by the Pope ; and finally 
died, in a self-imposed obscurity, declaring that he was weary 
of the incessant and unmeaning contests of life. And in his 
long reign of thirty years, what else can be said than that it 
was not marked by a single measure of permanent utility in 
advancing the interests of humanity. * 

But Luther has changed the entire face of Christendom. 
Catholic no less than Protestant countries feel the good effects 
of his fearless devotion to duty. His heroism has gone into 
the very life of the race. Who can tell how much higher the 
mass of mankind now stand for Luther's having lived ? Who, 
then, was the man of influence, the prince or the peasant, the 
Emperor or the monk ? What painter shall fitly portray the 
figures at the Diet of Worms ? — Selected. 



TAMERLANE AND THE DER VIS. 



235 



TAMERLANE AND THE DERVIS. 



Q. 



*AMERLANE. Thou bring' st me thy credentials from the 
^ Highest ; 

From Allah, and our Prophet ? speak thy message, 
%, * (k It must import the best and noblest ends. 

ti^^ADervis. Thus speaks our holy Mahomet, who has given thee 
To reign and conquer. Ill dost thou repay 
The bounties of his hand ; unmindful of 
The fountain whence thy streams of greatness flow, 
Thou hast forgot high Heaven, hast beaten down 
And trampled on Religion's sanctity. 



Tarn. Now, as I am a soldier and a king, 

The greatest names of honor, only show 

The imputation true, and Tamerlane 

Shall do thee ample justice on himself ; 

So much the sacred name of Heaven awes me, 

Could I suspect my soul of harboring aught 

To its dishonor, I would search it strictly, 

And drive the offending thought with fury forth. 

Der. Yes, thou hast hurt our holy prophet's honor, 

By fostering the pernicious Christian sect ; 
Those whom his sword pursued with fell destruction, 
Thou tak'st into thy bosom, to thy councils ; 
They are thy only friends. The true believers 
Mourn to behold thee favor this Axalla. 



Tarn. I fear me thou exceed'st the prophet's order, 
And bring'st his venerable name to shelter 
A wideness ill becoming thee to use, 
Or me to suffer. When thou nam'st my friend, 
Thou nam'st a man beyond the least suspicion, 
Virtuous and great, a warrior and a prince. 

Der. He's a Christian ; and our law condemns him, 

Though he were even all thou speak'st and more. 

Tarn. 'Tis false ; no law divine condemns the virtuous 
For differing from the rules your schools devise ; 
Look around, how Providence bestows alike 



236 KNIGHTLY VIRTUES. 

Sunshine and rain, to bless the fruitful year, 

On different nations, all of different faiths ; 

And though by several names and titles worshiping, 

Heaven takes the various tribute of their praise ; 

Since all agree to own, at least, to mean, 

One best, one greatest, only Lord of all ! 

Thus, when he viewed the many forms of nature, 

He found that all was good, and blest the fair variety. 

Der. Most impious and profane ! No, frown not, prince ! 
Full of the prophet, I despise the danger 
Thy angry power may threaten ; I command thee 
To hear and to obey ; since thus says Mahomet : 
"Why have I made thee dreadful to the nations ? 
Why have I given thee conquest, but to spread 
My sacred law even to the utmost earth, 
And make my holy Mecca the world's worship ? 
Go on, and wheresoe'er thy arms shall prosper, 
Plant there the prophet's name ; with sword and fire 
Drive out all other faiths, and let the world 
Confess him only." 

Tam. Had he but commanded 

My sword to conquer all, to make the world 

Know but one Lord, the task were not so hard ; 

'Twere but to do what has been done already, 

For Philip's son and Caesar did as much ; 

But to subdue the unconquerable mind, 

To make one reason have the same effect 

Upon all apprehension, to force this 

Or that man to think alike, and just as thou or it ! 

Impossible! Unless their souls were like ; 

But human faces are not more unlike than these. 

Der. Well might the holy cause be carried on, 

If Mussulman did not make war on Mussulman. 
Why hold'st thou captive a believing monarch ? 
Now, as thou hop'st to escape the prophet's curse, 
Release the royal Bajazet and join 
With force united to destroy the Christians ! 

Tarn. 'Tis well ; I've found the cause that moved thy zeal ; 
What — shall politicians set thee on, 
In hopes to fright me, this way, to complaisance ? 



TAMERLANE AND THE DERVIS. 237 

Der. Our prophet only ! 

Tarn. No ; thou dost belie him, 

Thou maker of new faith, that dares to build 
Thy fond inventions on Religion's name ! 
Religion's lustre is, by native innocence, 
Divinely pure, and free from every art ; 
You falsify her ! Hence, hypocrite, thou'rt unmasked ! 

Der. I have but one resort. Now, aid me, prophet ! [Aside.] 
Yet have I somewhat further to unfold : 
Our prophet speaks to thee in thunder — thus — 
[The Dervis draws a concealed dagger, and attempts to stab Tamer- 
lane^ 

Tatn. No ; villain ! Heaven is watchful o'er her worshipers 
[Wresting the dagger from him.] 
And blasts the murderer's purpose. Think, thou wretch ! 
Think on the pains that wait thy crime, and tremble 
When I shall doom thee ! 

Der. 'Tis but death at last ; 

And I will suffer greatly for the cause 
That urged me first to the bold deed. 

Tarn. O impious ! 

Enthusiasm thus makes villains martyrs ; [Pausing.] 

It shall be so. To die 'twere a reward. 

Now learn the difference 'twixt thy faith and mine ; 

Thine bids thee lift thy dagger to my throat ; 

Mine can forgive the wrong and bid thee live ; 

Keep thine own wicked secret and be safe ! 

If thou repent' st I have gained one to virtue, 

And am, in that, rewarded for my mercy ! 

If thou continuest still to be the same, 

'Tis punishment enough to be a villain ; 

Hence from my sight. It shocks my soul to think 

That there is such a monster in my kind ! 

Whither will man's impiety extend ? 

O gracious Heaven ! dost thou withhold thy thunder 

When bold assassins use thy name 

And swear they are the champions of thy cause ? 

Nicholas Rowe. 



238 KNIGHTLY VIRTUES. 

KING HENRY, IV, AT IVRY. 



T. B. MACAULAY. 




HE murder of Henry, III, had given Henry 
of Navarre the legal title to the throne 
of France ; but his rights were denied by 
the Roman Catholic party, who resisted 
him in arms. In the course of the year 
1590 the King won a splendid victory over 
his opponents at Ivry. Ivry is near the 
town of Dreux, where Maine and the Isle 
of France abut upon the southeast corner of Normandy 

Now glory to the Lord of hosts, from whom all glories are ! 

And glory to our Sovereign Liege, King Henry of Navarre ! 

Now let there be the merry sound of music and of dance, 

Through thy corn-fields green, and sunny vines, O pleasant land of 

France ! 
And thou, Rochelle, our own Rochelle, proud city of the waters, 
Again let rapture light the eyes of all thy mourning daughters. 
As thou wert constant in our ills, be joyous in our joy ; 
For cold, and stiff, and still are they who wrought thy walls annoy. . 
Hurrah ! Hurrah ! a single field hath turned the chance of war ; 
Hurrah ! Hurrah ! for Ivry, and King Henry of Navarre. 

Oh ! how our hearts were beating, when, at the dawn of day, 

We saw the army of the League drawn out in long array ; 

With all its priest-led citizens, and all its rebel peers, 

And Appenzel's stout infantry, and Egmont's Flemish spears. 

There rode the brood of false Lorraine, the curses of our land ! 

And dark Mayenne was in the midst, a truncheon in his hand ! 

And, as we looked on them, we thought of Seine's empurpled 

flood, 
And good Coligny's hoary hair all dabbled with his blood ; 
And we cried unto the living God, who rules the fate of war, 
To fight for His own holy name, and Henry of Navarre. 

The King is come to marshal us, in all his armor drest ; 

And he has bound a snow-white plume upon his gallant crest ; 



KING HENR Y IV AT IVR Y. 239 

He look'd upon his people, and a tear was in his eye ; 

He looked upon the traitors, and his glance was stern and high ; 

Right graciously he smiled on us, as roll'd from wing to wing, 

Down all our line, a deafening shout, "God save our Lord the 

King ! " 
" And if my standard-bearer fall, as fall full well he may, 
For never saw I promise yet of such a bloody fray, 
Press where ye see my white plume shine amidst the ranks of war, 
And be your oriflamme to-day the helmet of Navarre." 

Hurrah ! the foes are moving. Hark to the mingled din 

Of fife, and steed, and trump and drum, and roaring culverin ! 

The fiery Duke is pricking fast across Saint Andre's plain, 

With all the hireling chivalry of Guelders and Almayne. 

Now by the lips of those ye love, fair gentlemen of France, 

Charge — for the Golden Lilies — upon them with the lance. 

A thousand spurs are striking deep, a thousand spears in rest, 

A thousand knights are pressing close behind the snow-white crest ; 

And in they burst, and on they rushed, while, like a guiding star, 

Amidst the thickest carnage blazes the Helmet of Navarre. 

Now, God be praised, the day is ours ! Mayenne hath turned his rein ; 

D'Aumale hath cried for quarter ; the Flemish Count is slain ; 

Their ranks are breaking like thin clouds before a Biscay gale 

The field is heaped with bleeding steeds, and flags and cloven mail. 

And then we thought on vengeance, and, all along our van, 
"Remember Saint Bartholomew," was passed from man to man. 

But out spake gentle Henry : " No Frenchman is my foe; " 
" Down, down, with every foreigner, but let your brethren go ! " 

Oh ! was there ever such a knight, in friendship or in war ? 

As our sovereign lord, King Henry, the soldier of Navarre ? 

Right well fought all the Frenchmen who fought for France to-day ; 

And many a lordly banner God gave them for a prey ; 

But we of the religion have borne us best in fight; 

And the good Lord of Rosny hath ta'en the cornet white — 

Our own true Maximilian the cornet white hath ta'en, 

The cornet white with crosses black, the flag of false Lorraine. 

Up with it high ; unfurl it wide — that all the host may know 

How God hath humbled the proud house which wrought his church 

such woe. 
Then on the ground, while trumpets sound their loudest point of war, 
Fling the red shreds, a foot-cloth meet for Henry of Navarre. 



240 



KNIGHTL Y VIRTUES. 



Ho ! maidens of Vienna ! Ho, matrons of Lucerne ! 

Weep, weep, and rend your hair for those who never shall return. 

Ho ! Philip, send, for charity, thy Mexican pistoles, 

That Antwerp monks may sing a mass for thy poor spearman's 

souls ! 
Ho ! gallant nobles of the League, look that your arms be bright! 
Ho ! burghers of Saint Genevieve, keep watch and ward to-night ! 
For our God hath crush' d the tyrant, our God hath raised the slave, 
And mock'd the counsel of the wise, and the valor of the brave. 
Then glory to His holy name, from whom all glories are ; 
And glory to our Sovereign Lord, King Henry of Navarre. 



LADY JANE GREY. 



WENDELL PHILLIPS. 




ADY JANE GREY, " the mirror of her age," 
an illustrious but unfortunate personage of 
the blood royal of England, was the eldest 
daughter of the Duke of Suffolk, whose 
mother was wife to Edward IV. Lady- 
Jane, on her mother's side, was great-grand- 
daughter of Henry VII, and second cousin 
to Mary, Queen of Scots. She was born in 
1537; and " was not more distinguished," says Horace Wal- 
pole, " by her descent, than by her extraordinary accom- 
plishments, and these were adorned with such sweetness of 
temper and innate goodness of heart, as rendered her the 
delight and wonder of all who knew her." 

Under the tuition of Bishop Aylmer, she made surprising 
progress in arts and sciences, and could express herself prop- 
erly in the Latin and Greek tongues. We are told by Ascham 
" that she wrote Latin with great strength of sentiment ; " and 
her contemporary, Sir Thomas Chaloner, says, " she was well 
versed in Hebrew, Chaldee, Arabic, French and Italian. She 
played well, wrote a curiously fine hand, was excellent at her 
needle; yet with all these endowments, so rare in any age, and 



LADY JANE GREY. 241 

still more remarkable in the reign of Edward VI, she was of a 
mild, humble and modest spirit." Fuller quaintly says, " she 
had the innocency of childhood, the beauty of youth, the 
solidity of middle, the gravity of old age, and all at eighteen ; 
the birth of a princess, the learning of a clerk, the life of a 
saint, yet the death of a malefactor for her parent's offences." 
Roger Ascham, Queen Elizabeth's schoolmaster, says, " Aris- 
totle's praise of women is perfected in her. She has good 
manners, prudence, and a love of labor. She possesses every 
talent without the least weakness of her sex. I found her in 
her chamber, reading Plato's Phaedon in Greek with as much 
delight as some gentlemen would read a merry tale in 
Boccace." 

Indeed, he tells us it was to read Plato she gave up a 
hunting party that was at the moment sweeping through her 
father's park. Asking her " how she could lose such 
pastime ? " she said, " I wisse (know) all the sport in the park 
is but the shadow of what pleasure I find in this book;" 
adding, that one of the greatest blessings God ever gave her, 
was in sending her sharp parents and a gentle schoolmaster, 
which made her take delight in nothing so much as studies. 
The whole conversation, as he reported it, is touching and 
simple, and specially interesting as illustrative of the cold 
formality of the relation of parent and child in that age and 
rank. 

Through her father's machinations Edward VI was induced 
to set aside Henry VIII's will, disinherit his sister, afterwards 
the bloody Mary, and settle the crown on Lady Jane, who 
had just married Lord Guilford Dudley. It was on July 
ioth, 1553, that the Dukes of Northumberland and Suffolk, 
the last her father and the first her father-in-law, repaired to 
her residence, and explaining to her the state of affairs, kneeled 
to her in homage as Queen of England. Astonished, but not 
moved or elevated by these new dignities, she refused to take 
a crown which of right belonged to the late king's sisters, and 
told them " she understood the infamy of those who violated 
16 



242 KNIGHTLY VIRTUES. 

right to gain a sceptre, for it would be to mock God, and 
deride justice, to scruple at the stealing of a shilling and not 
at the usurpation of a crown. I am not so young, or so little 
read in the guiles of fortune as to suffer myself to be taken by 
them. Even if I escape death," she added, " liberty is more 
precious to me than the chain you offer, with whatever gold 
and precious stones it be adorned." 

However, she was at last prevailed upon by the entreaties 
of father, mother and husband, and assumed the crown. 

" She lifted not up the least finger to put the diadem on 
herself," says old Fuller, " but was only contented to sit still 
whilst others endeavored to crown her ; or rather, was so far 
from biting at the bait of sovereignty, that unwillingly she 
opened her mouth to receive it." 

She is not reckoned as having reigned in England, being so 
soon defeated and executed for high treason by her successful 
competitor, Mary, on the twelfth day of February, 1554. Her 
letters to her friends and father, from prison, breathe the most 
touching spirit of resignation. That to her father is a striking 
picture of a strong mind struggling with the then supposed 
duty of a child. 

Her husband was executed first. As his dead body was 
borne by her window, she wrote in her table-book three 
sentences, one in Latin, one in Greek, and one in English. 
The first two relate to her husband ; the third was, " If my fault 
deserved punishment, my youth, at least, and my inexperience 
were worthy of excuse. God and posterity will show me 
favor." This book she gave to the lieutenant of the Tower. 
At the block the executioner kneeled and asked her pardon ; 
she answered, " Most willingly." Being blindfolded she felt 
her way to the block, laid her head on it, murmured, " Lord, 
into thy hand I commend my spirit ; " and then her head was 
severed from her body by a single stroke. She was in her 
eighteenth year. It is said that even Bloody Mary herself was 
disposed to pardon her. Her fate was lamented throughout 
Europe; and Brooks relates that Morgan, the judge who 



A HUMANE AND HONORABLE ENGLISHMAN. 



243 



sentenced her, fell mad, and died crying, " Take away the 
Lady Jane, take away the Lady Jane." 

It is Fuller Avho calls her "the mirror of her age; " and she 
seems to fill among women the place given to Sir Philip 
Sidney among men. Her letters and small pieces have been 
published in many languages. The following lines are said to 
have been pricked by her with a pin, possibly in prison, in 
Latin, which have thus been translated : — 

To mortal's common fate thy mind resign ; 
My lot to-day, to-morrow may be thine ; 
While God assists us, fruitless all our pain ; 
After this dark I hope for light again. 



A HUMANE AND HONORABLE ENGLISHMAN. 



(Extract from the Speech of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, in the House of Lords, in opposi- 
tion to the employment of Indians against the Americans.) 




HO is the man that, in addition to the dis- 
graces and mischiefs of our army, has 
dared to authorize and associate to our 
arms the tomahawk and scalping knife of 
the savage ? — to call into civilized alliance 
the wild and inhuman savage of the 
woods; to delegate to the merciless Indian 
the defence of disputed rights; and to wage 
the horrors of his barbarous war against our brethren ? My 
Lords, these enormities cry aloud for redress and punishment; 
but, atrocious as they are, they have found a defender in this 
House. 'It is perfectly justifiable,' says a noble Lord, 'to use 
all the means that God and Nature put into our hands.' I am 
astonished, shocked, to hear such principles confessed, to 
hear them avowed in this House, or even in this country, 
principles equally unconstitutional, inhuman, and unchristian ! 
" My Lords, I did not intend to have trespassed again upon 



244 KNIGHTLY VIRTUES. 

your attention ; but I cannot repress my indignation — I feel 
myself impelled by every duty to proclaim it. As members 
of this House, as men, as Christians, we are called upon to 
protest against the barbarous proposition. ' That God and 
Nature put into our hands!' What ideas that noble Lord 
may entertain of God and Nature, I know not ; but I know 
that such abominable principles are equally abhorrent to re- 
ligion and to humanity. What ! attribute the sacred sanction 
of God and Nature to the massacres of the Indian scalping- 
knife — to the cannibal savage, torturing, murdering, devouring, 
drinking the blood of his mangled victims ! Such horrible 
notions shock every precept of religion, revealed or natural ; 
every sentiment of honor, every generous feeling of humanity! 

"These abominable principles, and this more abominable 
avowal of them, demand most decisive indignation ! I call 
upon that Right Reverend Bench, those holy ministers of the 
Gospel, and pious pastors of our Church; I conjure them to 
join in the holy work, and to vindicate the religion of their 
God ! I appeal to the wisdom and the law of this learned 
Bench to defend and support the justice of their country ! I 
call upon the Bishops to interpose the unsullied sanctity of 
their lawn ; upon the judges to interpose the purity of their 
ermine, to save us from this pollution ! I call upon, the honor 
of your Lordships, to reverence the dignity of your ancestors, 
and to maintain your own ! I call upon the spirit and humanity 
of my country, to vindicate the national character ! From the 
tapestry that adorns these walls, the immortal ancestor of the 
noble Lord frowns with indignation at the disgrace of his 
country ! 

"Turn forth into our settlements, among our ancient con- 
nections, friends and relations, the merciless cannibal, thirsting 
for the blood of man, woman, and child? Send forth the 
infidel savage ? Against whom ? Against your brethren ! 
To lay waste their country, to desolate their dwellings, and 
extirpate their race and name, with these horrible hounds of 
savage war ! Spain armed herself with blood-hounds to extir- 



A HUMANE AND HONORABLE ENGLISHMAN. 245 

pate the wretched natives of America ; and we improve on the 
inhuman example of even Spanish cruelty; we turn loose 
these savages, these fiendish hounds, against our brethren and 
countrymen in America, of the same language, laws, liberties, 
and religion, endeared to us by every tie that should sanctify 
humanity ! 

"My Lords, this awful subject, so important to our honor, 
our Constitution, and our religion, demands the most solemn 
and effectual inquiry. And I again call upon your Lordships, 
and the united powers of the State, to examine into it thor- 
oughly and decisively, and to stamp upon it an indelible 
stigma of the public abhorrence. And I again implore those 
holy prelates of our religion to do away with these iniquities 
from among us. Let them perform a lustration; let them 
purify this House and this country from sin. My Lords, I am 
old and weak, and at present unable to say more; but my feel- 
ings and my indignation were too strong to have said less. I 
could not have slept this night in my bed, or have reposed on 
my pillow, without giving this vent to my eternal abhorrence 
of such preposterous and enormous principles. 

" This, my Lords, is a perilous and tremendous moment. It 
is no time for adulation. The smoothness of flattery cannot 
save us, in this rugged and awful crisis. It is now necessary 
to instruct the Throne, in the language of Truth. We must, 
if possible, dispel the delusion and darkness which envelop it, 
and display, in its full danger and genuine colors, the ruin 
which is brought to our doors. Can Ministers still presume 
to expect support in their infatuation? Can Parliament be so 
dead to its dignity and duty as to be thus deluded into the loss 
of the one and the violation of the other — as to give an un- 
limited support to measures which have heaped disgrace and 
misfortune upon us; measures which have reduced this late 
flourishing empire to ruin and contempt? But yesterday, and 
England might have stood against the world; now, none so poor 
to do her reverence ! 

" France, my Lords, has insulted you. She has encouraged 



246 KNIGHTLY VIRTUES. 

and sustained America; and, whether America be wrong or 
right, the dignity of this country ought to spurn the officious 
insult of French interference. Can even our Ministers sustain 
a more humiliating disgrace? Do they dare to resent it? Do 
they presume even to hint a vindication of their honor, and 
the dignity of the State, by requiring the dismissal of the 
plenipotentiaries of America? The people whom they affected 
to call contemptible rebels, but whose growing power has at 
last obtained the name of enemies — the people with whom 
they have engaged this country in war, and against whom 
they now command our implicit support in every measure of 
desperate hostility — this people, despised as rebels, or ac- 
knowledged as enemies, are abetted against you, supplied with 
every military store, their interests consulted, and their Am- 
bassadors entertained, by your inveterate enemy — and our 
Ministers dare not interpose with dignity or effect! 

" My Lords, this ruinous and ignominious situation, where 
we cannot act with success nor suffer with honor, calls upon 
us to remonstrate in the strongest and loudest language of 
truth, to rescue the ear of Majesty from the delusions which 
surround it. You cannot, I venture to say it, you cannot 
conquer America. What is your present situation there? We 
do not know the worst ; but we know that in three campaigns 
we have done nothing and suffered much. You may swell 
every expense, and strain every effort, still more extravagantly ; 
accumulate every assistance you can beg or borrow ; traffic 
and barter with every little pitiful German Prince, that sells 
and sends his subjects to the shambles of a foreign country; 
your efforts are forever vain and impotent — doubly so from 
this mercenary aid on which you rely ; for it irritates to an 
incurable resentment the minds of your enemies, to overrun 
them with the sordid sons of rapine and of plunder, devoting 
them and their possessions to the rapacity of hireling cruelty ! 
If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign 
troop was landed in my country I never would lay down my 
arms! — never! never! never!" 



HUMANITY OF ROBERT BRUCE. 247 

HUMANITY OF ROBERT BRUCE. 



SIR WALTER SCOTT. 




'NE morning the English and their Irish 
auxiliaries were pressing hard upon King 
Robert Bruce, who had given his army- 
orders to continue a hasty retreat ; for to 
have risked a battle with a much more 
numerous army, and in the midst of a 
country which favored his enemies, would 
have been extremely imprudent. On a 
sudden, just as King Robert was about to mount his horse, he 
heard a woman shrieking in despair. " What is the matter ?" 
said the king ; and he was informed by his attendants that a 
poor woman, a laundress or washerwoman, mother of an infant 
who had just been born, was about to be left behind the army, 
as being too weak to travel. 

The mother was shrieking, for fear of falling into the hands 
of the Irish, who were accounted very cruel, and there were 
no carriages or means of sending the woman and her infant 
on in safety. They must needs be abandoned if the army 
retreated. King Robert was silent for a moment when he 
heard this story, being divided betwixt the feelings of humanity, 
occasioned by the poor woman's distress, and the danger to 
which a halt would expose his army. At last he looked round 
on his officers, with eyes which kindled like fire. 

" Ah, gentlemen," he said, " let it never be said that a man 
who was born of a woman, and nursed by a woman's tender- 
ness, should leave a mother and an infant to the mercy of 
barbarians. In the name of God, let the odds and the risk be 
what they will, I will fight Edmund Butler rather than leave 
these poor creatures behind me. Let the army, therefore, 
draw up in line of battle, instead of retreating." 

The story had a singular conclusion; for the English 



248 



KNIGHTLY VIRTUES. 



general, seeing that Robert the Bruce halted and offered him 
battle, and knowing that the Scottish king was one of the best 
generals then living, conceived that he must have received 
some large supply of forces, and was afraid to attack him. 
And thus Bruce had an opportunity to send off the poor 
woman and her child, and then to retreat at his leisure, with- 
out suffering any inconvenience from the halt. 



A PROMISE IS SACRED. 



EDWARD GIBBON. 




SPANISH cavalier, having assassinated a Moor- 
ish gentleman, instantly fled from justice. He 
was vigorously pursued, but availing himself of 
a sudden turn in the road, he leaped, unper- 
ceived, over a garden wall. The proprietor, who 
was also a Moor, happened to be at that time 
walking in the garden, and the Spaniard, falling 
upon his knees before him, acquainted him with 
his case, and in the most pathetic manner, implored conceal- 
ment. The Moor listened to him with compassion, and 
generously promised his assistance. He then locked him up 
in a summer house, and left him with the assurance that, when 
night came, he would provide for his escape. A few hours 
afterwards the dead body of his son was brought to him, and 
the description of the murderer exactly agreed with the 
appearance of the Spaniard whom he had then in custody. 
He concealed the horror and suspicion which he felt, and 
retiring to his chamber, he remained there until midnight. 
Then going privately into the garden, he opened the door of 
the summer house, and thus accosted the cavalier : " Christian, 
the youth whom you have murdered was my only son. Your 
crime deserves the severest punishment. But I have solemnly 



QUEEN PHILIP PA AT CALAIS. 



249 



pledged my word not to betray you, and I disdain to violate a 
rash engagement even with a cruel enemy." 

He then conducted the Spaniard to the stables, and furnish- 
ing him with one of his swiftest mules, " flee," said he, " while 
the darkness of night conceals you. Your hands are polluted 
with blood; but God is just; and I humbly thank him that 
my faith is unspotted, and that I have resigned judgment to 
him." 



QUEEN PHILIPPA AND THE BURGHERS OF 

CALAIS. 



JOHN FROST. 




FTER the battle of Crecy, France, August 26th, 
1346, King Edward of England laid siege to 
Calais, and fortified his camp in so impregnable 
a manner that all the efforts of France proved 
ineffectual to raise the siege or throw succors 
into the city. The citizens, under Count Vienne, 
their gallant Governor, made an admirable de- 
fence. France had now put her second sickle 
into the harvest, since Edward, with his victorious army, sat 
down before the town. The eyes of all Europe were intent 
on the issue. At length famine did more for Edward than 
arms. After suffering unheard of calamities, they resolved to 
attack the enemy's camp. They boldly sallied forth ; the Eng- 
lish joined battle ; and after a long and desperate engagement, 
Count Vienne was taken prisoner, and the citizens who sur- 
vived the slaughter retired within their gates. 

The command devolved upon Eustace St. Pierre, a man of 
common birth, but of exalted virtues ; he offered to capitulate 
with Edward, provided he permitted him to depart with his 
life and liberty. Edward, to avoid the imputation of cruelty, 
consented to spare the bulk of the plebeians, provided they 



250 KNIGHTLY VIRTUES. 

delivered up to him six of their principal citizens, with halters 
about their necks, as victims of due atonement for that spirit 
of rebellion with which they had inflamed the vulgar. When 
his messenger, Sir Walter Mauny, delivered the terms, con- 
sternation and pale dismay were impressed upon every coun- 
tenance. To a long and deadly silence deep groans suc- 
ceeded, till Eustace St. Pierre, getting up to a little eminence, 
thus addressed the assembly : " My friends — We are brought 
to great straits this day. We must either yield to the terms 
of our cruel and ensnaring conqueror, or give up our tender 
infants, our wives and daughters, to the bloody and brutal lusts 
of the violating soldiers. Is there any expedient left whereby 
we may avoid the guilt and infamy of delivering those who 
have suffered every misery with you on the one hand, or the 
desolation and horror of a sacked city on the other ? There 
is, my friends — there is one expedient left — a gracious, an 
excellent, a God-like expedient ! Is there any one here to 
whom virtue is dearer than life ? Let him offer himself an 
oblation for the safety of his people ! He shall not fail of a 
blessed approbation from that Power who offered up His only 
Son for the salvation of mankind." 

He spoke; but a universal silence ensued. Each man 
looked around for the example of that virtue and magnanimity 
which all wished to approve in themselves, though they wanted 
the resolution. 

At length St. Pierre resumed, " I doubt not but that many 
here are as ready, nay, more zealous of this martyrdom, than 
I can be ; though the station to which I am raised, by the 
captivity of Lord Vienne, imparts a right to be the first in 
giving my life for your sakes. I give it freely ; I give it cheer- 
fully. Who comes next ? " 

" Your son," exclaimed a son not yet come to maturity. 
" Ah, my child," cried St. Pierre, " I am then twice sacrificed. 
But, no ; I have rather begotten thee a second time. Thy 
years are few, but full, my son. The victim of virtue has 
reached the utmost purpose and goal of mortality. Who next, 



QUEEN PHILIPPA AT CALAIS. 251 

my friends ? This is the hour of heroes ! " " Your kinsman," 
cried John de Aire. " Your kinsman," cried James Wissant. 
" Your kinsman," cried Peter Wissant. 

" Oh ! " exclaimed Sir Walter Mauny, bursting into tears, 
" Why was not I a citizen of Calais ? " 

The sixth victim was still wanting, but was quickly supplied 
by lot, from numbers who were emulous of so ennobling an 
example. 

The keys of the city were then delivered to Sir Walter. He 
took the six prisoners into his custody ; then ordered the gates 
to be opened, and gave charge to his attendants to conduct 
the remaining citizens, with their families, through the camp 
of the English. 

Before they departed, however, they desired permission to 
take their last adieux of their deliverers. What a parting ! 
What a scene ! They crowded, with their wives and children 
about St. Pierre and his fellow-prisoners. They embraced — 
they clung around — they fell prostrate before them. They 
groaned — they wept aloud — and the joint clamor of their 
mourning passed the gates of the city, and was heard through- 
out the English camp. The English, by this time, were 
apprised of what passed within Calais. They heard the voice 
of lamentation, and their souls were touched with compassion. 
Each of the soldiers prepared a portion of his own victuals, to 
welcome and entertain the half-famished inhabitants ; and they 
loaded them with as much as their present weakness was able 
to bear, in order to supply them with sustenance by the way. 
At length St. Pierre and his fellow victims appeared under the 
conduct of Sir Walter and a guard. All the tents of the 
English were instantly emptied. The soldiers poured from all 
parts, and arranged themselves on each side, to behold and 
contemplate, to admire this little band of patriots, as they 
passed. They bowed down to them on all sides. They mur- 
mured their applause of that virtue which they could not but 
revere, even in enemies ; and they regarded those ropes, which 



252 KNIGHTLY VIRTUES. 

they had voluntarily assumed about their necks, as ensigns of 
greater dignity than that of the British Garter. 

As soon as they had reached the presence, " Mauny," says 
the monarch, " are these the principal inhabitants of Calais ?" 
" They are," says Mauny. " They are not only the principal 
men of Calais, they are the principal men of France, my lord, 
if virtue has any share in the act of ennobling." " Were they 
delivered peaceably ?" says Edward. " Was there no commo- 
tion among the people ?" " Not in the least, my lord ; the 
people would all have perished, rather than have delivered the 
least of these to your majesty. They are self-delivered, self- 
devoted ; and come to offer up their inestimable heads as an 
example equivalent for the ransom of thousands." Edward 
was secretly piqued at this reply of Sir Walter ; but he knew 
the privilege of a British subject, and suppressed his resent- 
ment. " Experience has ever shown," says he, " that lenity 
only serves to invite people to new crimes. Severity, at times, 
is indispensably necessary to compel subjects to submission, 
by punishment and example. Go," he cried to an officer, 
" lead these men to execution." 

At this instant a sound of triumph was heard throughout 
the camp. The Queen had just arrived with powerful re- 
inforcements of gallant troops. Sir Walter Mauny flew to 
receive Her Majesty, and briefly informed her of the par- 
ticulars respecting the six victims. 

As soon as she had been welcomed by Edward and his 
court, she desired a private audience. 

" My lord," said she " the question I am to enter upon is 
not touching the lives of a few mechanics — it respects the 
honor of the English nation ; it respects the glory of my Ed- 
ward, my husband, my king. You think you have sentenced 
six of your enemies to death. No, my lord, they have sen- 
tenced themselves ; and their execution would be the execu- 
tion of their own orders, not the orders of Edward. The 
stage upon which they would suffer would be to them a stage 



QUEEN PHILIP PA AT CALAIS. 253 

of honor, but a stage of shame to Edward ; a reproach on his 
conquests ; an indelible disgrace to his name. Let us rather 
disappoint these haughty burghers, who wish to invest them- 
selves with glory at our expense. 

"We cannot wholly deprive them of the merit of a sacrifice 
so nobly intended, but we may cut them short of their desires. 
In the place of that death by which their glory would be con- 
summate, let us bury them under gifts ; let us put them to 
confusion with applauses. We shall thereby defeat them of 
that popular opinion which never fails to attend those who 
suffer in the cause of virtue." 

" I am convinced ; you have prevailed. Be it so," replied 
Edward. " Prevent the execution; have them instantly before 
us." They came ; when the Queen, with an aspect and accents 
diffusing sweetness, thus bespoke them : — 

" Natives of France, and inhabitants of Calais, you have put 
us to a vast expense of blood and treasure in the recovery of 
our just and natural inheritance ; but you have acted up to the 
best of your erroneous judgment; and we admire and honor 
in you that valor and virtue by which we are so long kept out 
of our rightful possessions. You, noble burghers ! you, 
excellent citizens ! though you were tenfold the enemies of 
our person and our throne, we can feel nothing, on our part, 
but respect and affection for you. You have been sufficiently 
tested. We loose your chains; we snatch you from the 
scaffold ; and we thank you for that lesson of humiliation 
which you teach us when you show us that excellence is not 
of blood, of title or station ; that virtue gives a dignity superior 
to that of kings ; and that those whom the Almighty in- 
fuses with sentiments like yours, are justly and eminently 
raised above all human distinctions. You are now free to 
depart to your kinsfolk, your countrymen, to all those whose 
lives and liberties you have so nobly redeemed, provided you 
refuse not the tokens of our esteem. Yet we would rather 
bind you to ourselves by every endearing obligation ; and for 
this purpose we offer to you your choice of the gifts and 



254 



KNIGHTLY VIRTUES. 



honors that Edward has to bestow. Rivals for fame, but 
always friends to virtue, we wish that England were entitled 
to call you her sons." " Ah, my country !" exclaimed St. 
Pierre ; " it is now that I tremble for you. Edward only wins 
our cities ; but Philippa conquers hearts." 



VOLNEY BECKER, THE HERO SAILOR BOY. 



WILLIAM CHAMBERS. 




HILE Volney was yet a mere baby, his 
father taught him to move and guide him- 
self in the middle of the waves, even when 
they were most agitated. He used to 
throw him from the stern of the boat into 
the sea, and encourage him to sustain him- 
self by swimming, and only when he ap- 
peared to be sinking did he plunge in to 
his aid. In this way, Volney Becker, from his very cradle, 
was taught to brave the dangers of the sea, in which, in time, 
he moved with the greatest ease and confidence. At four 
years of age he was able to swim a distance of three or four 
miles after his father's vessel, which he would not enter till 
completely fatigued. He would then catch a rope which was 
thrown to him, and clinging to it, mount safely to the deck. 

When Volney was about nine years of age, he was placed 
apprentice in a merchant ship, in which, it appears, his father 
sometimes sailed, and in this situation he rendered himself 
exceedingly useful. In tempestuous weather, when the wind 
blew with violence, tore the sails, and made the timbers creak, 
and while the rain fell in torrents, he was not the last In 
manceuvering. The squirrel does not skip with more agility 
over the loftiest trees than did Volney along the stays and sail- 
yards. When he was at the top of the highest mast, even in 



VOLNEY BECKER, THE HERO SAILOR BOY. 255 

the fiercest storm, he appeared as little agitated as a passenger 
stretched on a hammock. 

Such was the cleverness and good temper of Volney Becker 
that, at his twelfth year, he was judged worthy of promotion 
in the vessel, and of receiving double his former pay. The 
Captain of the ship on board which he served cited him as a 
model to other boys. He did not even fear to say once, in the 
presence of the whole crew, " If this little man continues to con- 
duct himself with so much valor and prudence, I have no doubt 
of his obtaining a place much above that which I now occupy." 

Little Volney was very sensible to the praises that he so 
well deserved. Although deprived of the advantages of a 
liberal education, the general instructions he had received, and 
his own experience had opened his mind, and he aspired, by his 
conduct, to win the esteem and affection of those about him. He 
was always ready and willing to assist his fellow-sailors, and 
by his extraordinary activity, saved them in many a dangerous 
emergency. An opportunity at length arrived, in which the 
young sailor performed one of the most gallant actions on record. 

The vessel to which Volney belonged was bound to Port-au- 
Prince, and during this voyage his father was on board. 
Among the passengers was a little girl, daughter of a rich 
American merchant ; she had slipped away from her nurse, 
who was ill and taking some repose in the cabin, and ran upon 
deck. There, while she gazed on the wide world of waters 
around, a sudden heaving of the ship caused her to become 
dizzy, and she fell over the side of the vessel into the sea. 

The father of Volney, perceiving the accident, darted after 
her, and in five or six strokes he caught her by the frock. 
While he swam with one hand to regain the vessel, and with 
the other held the child close to his breast, Becker perceived 
at a distance a shark advancing directly toward him. He 
called for assistance. The danger was pressing. Every one 
ran on deck, but no one dared go further ; they contented 
themselves with firing off several muskets, with little effect ; 
and the animal, lashing the sea with his tail, and opening his 



256 KNIGHTLY VIRTUES. 

frightful jaws, was just about to seize its prey. In this terrible 
extremity, what strong men would not venture to attempt, 
filial piety excited a child to execute. Little Volney armed 
himself with a broad and pointed sabre ; he threw himself into 
the sea; then diving with the velocity of a fish, he slipped 
under the animal, and stabbed his sword into its body up to 
the hilt. Thus suddenly assailed, and deeply wounded, the 
shark quitted the track of its prey, and turned against its 
assailant, who attacked it with repeated lunges of his weapon. 
It was a heart-rending spectacle. On the one side the American 
trembling for his little girl, who seemed devoted to destruc- 
tion ; on the other a generous mariner exposing his life for a 
child not his own; and here the whole crew full of breathless 
anxiety as to the result of an encounter in which their young 
shipmate exposed himself to almost inevitable death to avert 
it from his father ! 

The combat was too unequal, and no refuge remained but 
in a speedy retreat. A number of ropes were speedily thrown 
out to the father and son, and they each succeeded in seizing 
one. Already they were several feet above the surface of the 
water. Already cries of joy were heard. " Here they are — 
here they are — they are saved ! " Alas ! no — they are not 
saved! At least one victim was to be sacrificed. Enraged at 
seeing its prey about to escape, the shark plunged to make a 
vigorous spring, then issuing from the sea with impetuosity, 
and darting forward like lightning, with the sharp teeth of its 
capacious mouth it tore asunder the body of the intrepid, but 
unfortunate boy, while suspended in the air. A part of poor 
little Volney's palpitating and lifeless body was drawn up to 
the ship, while his father and the fainting child were saved. 

Thus perished, at the age of twelve years and some months, 
this hopeful young sailor, who so well deserved a better fate. 
When we reflect on the generous action which he performed, 
in saving the life of his father and of the little girl, who was a 
stranger to him, at the expense of his own, we are surely 
entitled to place his name in the very first rank of heroes. 



THE CONNETABLE DE BOURBON AND BAYARD. 257 

THE CONNETABLE DE BOURBON AND 
BAYARD. 




HARLES Bourbon, Duke de Bourbonnais, 
styled Connetable de Bourbon, born 1489, 
was the son of the Count of Montpensier, 
and in consequence of the death of his elder 
brother, and his marriage with the only 
daughter of the Duke of Bourbon, he united 
in his own possession the vast estates of 
both these branches of the Bourbon family. 
Holding a very high position, in virtue of his birth and wealth, 
he soon showed himself to be no ordinary character, by the 
brilliancy of his exploits in arms, and by his rigid morals 
and severe taciturn disposition. At the age of twenty-six he 
received from Francis, I, the Constable's sword, and was sent 
to Italy at the head of an army, which he disciplined on the 
march, and crossing the Alps by passes previously deemed 
impracticable, he surprised the hostile generals, won the battle 
of Marignan, in 1 5 1 5 , and within a few days placed the keys 
of the citadel of Milan in the king's hands, acquiring for him- 
self, by these exploits, the reputation of the greatest general 
of his time. A subsequent quarrel with Maria Louisa, mother 
of King Francis, I, of France, led to the seizure, on behalf of 
the crown, of the estates he had acquired through his wife, who 
was dead, and the withholding of his pay as Constable. Thus 
deeply injured, he renounced the interests of France and con- 
cluded a private alliance with the Emperor Charles, V, of 
Spain, and Henry, VIII, of England. The former agreed to 
give him his sister in marriage, who had Portugal for her 
jointure, and to make an independent kingdom for him of 
Provence and Dauphine, with his own possessions of Bour- 
bonnais and Auvergne. The rest of France was to be appor- 
tioned between the two confederates. 

The Connetable was revenged on Francis, I, the French 
17 



258 KNIGHTLY VIRTUES. 

king, at the battle of Pa via, February 26, 1525, where the 
latter was taken prisoner. In a subsequent engagement with 
the French, led by Chevalier Bayard, the latter was mortally 
wounded, and also taken prisoner, and the substance of the 
following dialogue took place. 

He now went to Madrid, but soon found himself entirely 
disappointed in his hopes by the crafty Charles, who sent him 
back to Lombardy. Without money or support, surrounded 
by daring and mutinous bands, he conceived a plan to found 
for himself an independent dominion of his own. Hastily 
gathering together the wild bands around Milan, he led them 
against Rome, and on the 6th of May, 1527, appeared before 
the walls of that city. Resolved to conquer or die, he led his 
troops in the most impetuous manner, and eagerly seized, with 
his own hands, a scaling-ladder, in order to make his way over 
a weak place in the walls, when he was mortally wounded by 
a bullet, which Benvenuto Cellini, the world-renowned worker 
in bronze, afterwards asserted he had shot. 

Pierre du Terrail Bayard, the knight without fear and without 
reproach, born in 1476, at Castle Bayard, near Grenoble, was 
perhaps the only hero of the middle ages who deserved the 
unmingled praise and admiration bestowed upon him. Simple, 
modest, a sterling friend, and tender lover, pious, humane and 
magnanimous, he held together in rare symmetrical union the 
whole circle of the virtues. Early in life he distinguished 
himself as an able and sagacious warrior, and soon rose to 
a high position. 

When Francis, I, ascended the throne of France, Bayard was 
sent into Dauphine, to make a way for the army over the Alps 
and into Piedmont, and in this expedition he made the 
celebrated Prosper Colonna a prisoner. Next, his valor and 
skill gained the decisive victory of Marignan for the King, who, 
in consequence, submitted to receive the honor of Knighthood 
from the hands of Bayard. In this engagement the Connetable 
de Bourbon still fought under the banner of France ; but the 
quarrel between the latter and Francis, I, taking place soon 



THE CONNETABLE DE BOURBON AND BAYARD. 259 

after, Bayard found himself, a few years later, opposed in 
mortal combat to this skillful commander, who had mean- 
while gone over to the side of Spain. A desperate engage- 
ment took place at Sesia, Italy, in which Bayard was mortally 
wounded by an arrow from an arquebuse. So highly was he 
esteemed for all noble qualities, that his death was lamented, 
not only by the French king and nation, but also by his 
enemies. His love of virtue was so passionate, that he was 
wont to declare that all countries and provinces where justice 
did not rule were mere forests filled with brigands. 

Coiinetable. Is it the Chevalier Bayard that I see, stretched 
upon the grass, at the foot of that tree, stricken 
with a great wound ? Yes, it is he. Alas ! I pity 
him. Truly, two great men perished this day by our 
hands ; Vandenesse and he. These two Frenchmen 
were ornaments to their country by reason of their 
bravery. I feel that my heart is touched anew for 
his country. But let us advance and speak to him. 
Ah ! my poor Bayard it is with sadness that I see 
you in this condition. 

Bayard. It is with sadness also that I see you. 

Connetable. I comprehend very well that you are sony to find 
yourself a prisoner in my hands, by the fate of war ; 
but I do not wish' to consider you a prisoner. I 
wish to treat you as a good friend, and take as much 
pains to secure your recovery as if you were my own 
brother. Therefore, you need not be sorry to see me. 

Bayard. Alas ! Think you that I am not sorry to be under 
obligations to the greatest enemy of France ? It is 
neither on account of my captivity nor of my wound 
that I am sad; my time is short; death will soon 
deliver me out of your hands. 

Connetable. No, no, my dear Bayard, I hope that by our skill 
and attention you will soon be restored. 

Bayard. It is not that, that I long for, and I am content to die. 



260 KNIGHTLY VIRTUES. 

Connetable. What, then do you wish ? Is it, that having been 
vanquished, and made a prisoner in the retreat from 
Bonnivet, you cannot reconcile yourself to your fate? 
It is not your fault ; the others are to blame. Your 
reputation is already well established by the perform- 
ance of many noble deeds. The Imperialists can 
never forget your gallant defence of Mezieres. 

Bayard. As for me, I can never forget that you are the Grand 
Connetable, a prince of the most noble blood in the 
world, and that you are laboring, with your own 
hands, to destroy your fatherland, and the kingdom 
of your ancestors. 

Connetable. What ! Bayard ; I praise you, and you condemn 
me ! I pity you, and you insult me ! 

Bayard. If you pity me, I pity you also ; and I feel that you 
are more to be pitied than I. I go out of this world 
unsullied. I have sacrificed myself to duty. I die 
for my country and my king, esteemed by the enemies 
of France, and regretted by all good Frenchmen. 
Truly, my lot is worthy of envy. 

Connetable. And I — I am victorious over an enemy who has 
insulted me ; I am revenged ; I have driven him from 
the Milanese territory ; I will make him and all 
France feel the misfortune of driving me to extremes, 
and losing my services. Am I to be pitied on this 
account ? 

Bayard. Yes, one is always to be pitied when one acts in 
opposition to his duty. It were better to perish in 
fighting for the fatherland than to vanquish and 
triumph over it. Oh ! What horrible glory — that of 
destroying one's own country. 

Connetable. But my country has been ungrateful to me, 
although I have rendered it great service. The king 
has done me a great injustice ; he has robbed me of 
my entire fortune ; he has even taken from me my 
two servants. I have been compelled to flee, in 



THE CONNE TABLE DE BOURBON AND BAYARD. 261 

order to preserve my life, which was seriously threat- 
ened. What was to be done ? 

Bayard. You should rather have endured all injuries than to 
offend against France and the greatness of your 
house. If you were persecuted, you could have 
retired; it would have been better to be poor and 
unknown than to take up arms against your country. 
Even in poverty and in the most wretched exile, 
your reputation would not have been lost. 

Connetable. But do you not see that vengeance and ambition 
have joined hands and forced me to this extremity. 
I desire that the king apologize for having treated 
me so badly. 

Bayard. To bring him to repentance, a test of patience on 
your part is necessary, which is not less a heroic 
virtue than courage. 

Connetable. The king continuing so unjust, and allowing him- 
self to be blinded to every sense of right, does he 
merit an avowal of so great respect from me ? 

Bayard. If the king does not merit it, the country, as a whole, 
does. The dignity of the Crown, of which you are 
the heir, deserves it. You owe it to yourself to 
spare France, of which you may one day become king. 

Connetable. Well, I am in the wrong. I admit it ; but do you 
not know that the best of hearts finds it hard to resist 
bearing feelings of resentment on such occasions. 

Bayard. I know it well ; but true courage consists in resisting. 
If you are conscious of your fault, hasten to atone 
for it. As for me, I am about to die, and I find that 
you are more deserving of pity in your prosperity 
than I am in my sufferings. Even if the Emperor 
would not deceive you ; even if he were to give you 
his sister in marriage and share France with you, 
he could not efface the stain that dishonors your life. 
The Connetable a rebel ! Oh ! what a shame ! Listen ! 
Bayard dying as he lived, and never ceasing to speak 
the truth. — From the French of Fenelon. 



262 KNIGHTLY VIRTUES. 

GEORGE, IV, AND WASHINGTON. 



WILLIAM M. THACKERAY. 




HE year 1784 was remarkable in the life of 
our friend, the First Gentleman of Europe, 
George, IV. Do you not know that he was 
twenty-one in that year, and opened Carlton 
House with a grand ball to the nobility and 
gentry, and doubtless wore his lovely pink 
coat. I was eager to read about the ball, 
and looked to the old magazines for infor- 
mation. The entertainment took place on the 10th February. 
In " The European Magazine" of March, 1784, 1 came straight- 
way upon it : — 

" The alterations at Carlton House being finished, we lay 
before our readers a description of the state apartments as they 
appeared on the 10th instant, when His Royal Highness gave 

a grand ball to the principal nobility and gentry 

The entrance to the state room fills the mind with an inex- 
pressible idea of greatness and splendor. 

" The state chair is of a gold frame, covered with crimson 
damask; on each corner of the feet is a lion's head, expressive 
of fortitude and strength ; the feet of the chair have serpents 
twining round them, to denote wisdom. Facing the throne 
appears the helmet of Minerva ; and over the windows glory 
is represented by Saint George with a superb gloria. 

" But the saloon may be styled the chef cfceuvre, and in every 
ornament discovers great invention. It is hung with a figured 
lemon satin. The window curtains, sofas and chairs are of the 
same color. The ceiling is ornamented with emblematical 
paintings, representing the Graces and Muses, together with 
Jupiter, Mercury, Apollo and Paris. Two ormolu chandeliers 
are placed here. It is impossible by expression to do justice 
to the extraordinary workmanship, as well as design, of the 
ornaments. They each consist of a palm, branching out in 



GEORGE, IV, AND WASHINGTON. 263 

five directions for the reception of lights. A beautiful figure 
of a rural nymph is represented entwining the stems of the 
tree with wreaths of flowers In the centre of the room is a 
rich chandelier. To see this apartment dans son plus beau 
jour, it should be viewed in the glass over the chimney-piece. 
The range of apartments from the saloon to the ball room, 
when the doors are open, formed one of the grandest spectacles 
that ever was beheld." 

In " The Gentleman's Magazine," for the very same month 
and year — March, 1784 — is an account of another festival, in 
which another great gentleman of English extraction is repre- 
sented as taking a principal share : — 

" According to order, His Excellency the Commander-in- 
Chief was admitted to a public audience of Congress ; and being 
seated, the President, after a pause, informed him that the United 
States assembled were ready to receive his communications. 
Whereupon he arose, and spoke as follows : — 

" Mr. President : The great events on which my resignation 
depended having at length taken place, I have now the honor of offering 
my sincere congratulations to Congress, and of presenting myself before 
them to surrender into their hands the trust committed to me, and to 
claim the indulgence of retiring from the service of my country. 

" Happy in the confirmation of our independence and sovereignty, and 
pleased with the opportunity afforded the United States of becoming a 
respectable nation, I resign with satisfaction the appointment I accepted 
with diffidence ; a diffidence in my abilities to accomplish so arduous a 
task, which, however, was superseded by a confidence in the rectitude 
of our cause, the support of the supreme power of the Union and the 
patronage of heaven. 

" The successful termination of the war has verified the most sanguine 
expectations, and my gratitude for the interposition of Providence, and 
the assistance I have received from my countrymen, increases with every 
review of the momentous contest. 

" While I repeat my obligations to the army in general, I should do 
injustice to my own feelings not to acknowledge in this place the peculiar 
services and distinguished merit of the gentlemen who have been 
attached to my person during the war. In the choice of confidential 
officers to compose my family, it was impossible to be more fortunate. 
Permit me, sir, to recommend in particular those who have continued in 



264 KNIGHTLY VIRTUES. 

the service to the present moment, as worthy of the favorable notice and 
patronage of Congress. 

" I consider it an indispensable duty to close this last act of my official 
life by commending the interests of our dearest country to the protection 
of Almighty God, and those who ha.ve the superintendence of them to His 
holy keeping. 

" Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great 
theatre of action, and bidding an affectionate farewell to this august body, 
under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my commission 
and take my leave of all the employments of public life." 

To which the President replied : — 

" Sir : The United States, in Congress assembled, receive with 
emotions too affecting for utterance the solemn resignation of the 
authorities under which you have led their troops with success through a 
perilous and doubtful war. Called by your country to defend its invaded 
rights, you accepted the sacred charge before it had formed alliances, and 
whilst it was without funds or a government to support you. You have 
conducted the great military contest with wisdom and fortitude, invariably 
regarding the rights of the civil power through all disasters and changes. 
You have, by the love and confidence of your fellow-citizens, enabled 
them to display their martial genius and transmit their fame to posterity. 
You have persevered till these United States, aided by a magnanimous 
king and nation, have been enabled, under a just Providence, to close 
the war in freedom, safety and independence, on which happy event we 
sincerely join you in congratulations. 

" Having defended the standard of liberty in this new world ; having 
taught a lesson useful to those who inflict and those who feel oppression ; 
you retire from the great theatre of action with the blessings of your 
fellow-citizens ; but the glory of your virtues will not terminate with your 
military command ; it will continue to animate remotest ages. 

" We feel with you our obligations to the army in general, and will 
particularly charge ourselves with the interests of those confidential 
officers who have attended your person to this affecting moment. 

"We join you in commending the interests of our dearest country to 
the protection of Almighty God, beseeching him to dispose the hearts 
and minds of its citizens to improve the opportunity afforded them of 
becoming a happy and respectable nation. And for you we address to 
Him our earnest prayers, that a life so beloved may be fostered with all 
His care ; that your days may be happy as they have been illustrious, 
and that He will finally give you that reward which this world cannot 
give." 



EMIR HASSON. 265 

Which was the most splendid spectacle ever witnessed, the 
opening feast of Prince George in London, or the resignation 
of Washington ? Which is the noble character for after ages 
to admire, yon fribble dancing in lace and spangles, or yonder 
hero who sheathes his sword after a life of spotless honor, a 
purity unreproached, a courage indomitable, and a consum- 
mate victory ? Which of these is the true gentleman ? What 
is it to be a gentleman ? Is it to have lofty aims, to lead a 
pure life, to keep your honor virgin ; to have the esteem of 
your fellow-citizens, and the love of your fireside; to bear 
good fortune meekly ; to suffer evil with constancy ; and 
through evil or good to maintain truth always ? Show me 
the happy man whose life exhibits these qualities, and him we 
will salute as a gentleman, whatever his rank may be ; show 
me the prince who possesses them, and he may be sure of our 
love and loyalty. 

EMIR HASSAN. 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 



I 




ItMIR HASSAN, of the prophet's race, 
; Asked, with folded hands, the Almighty's grace ; 
Then, within the banquet hall he sat 
At his meal, upon the embroidered mat. 

There, a slave before him placed the food, 
Spilling, from the charger, as he stood, 
Awkwardly, upon the Emir's breast, 
Drops that foully stained the silken vest. 

To the floor, in great remorse and dread, 
Fell the slave, and thus, beseeching, said : 
"Master, they who hasten to restrain 
Rising wrath, in Paradise shall reign." 

Gentle was the answer Hassan gave : 
" I'm not angry." " Yet," pursued the slave, 



266 



KNIGHTL Y VIRTUES. 



Yet doth higher recompense belong 
To the injured who forgives a wrong." 

" I forgive," said Hassan. "Yet we read," 
So the prostrate slave went on to plead, 

•' That a higher seat in glory still 
Waits the man who renders good for ill." 

" Slave, receive thy freedom, and behold 
In thy hand I lay a purse of gold : 
Let me never fail to heed, in aught, 
What the prophet of our God hath taught. 



A DOUBLE REWARD. 




(HE Prince of Conti, being highly pleased with 
the intrepid behavior of a grenadier at the 
siege of Phillipsburg, in 1734, threw him a 
purse, excusing the smallness of the sum it 
contained as being too poor a reward for 
such courage. Next morning the grenadier 
went to the Prince with two diamond rings 
and other jewels of considerable value. " Sir," 
said he, "the gold I found in your purse I suppose you in- 
tended for me; but these I bring back to you, having no claim 
to them." " You have doubly deserved them by your bravery 
and by your honesty," said the Prince, " therefore you may 
keep them." Anonymous, 



" Breathes there a man with soul so dead, 
Who never to himself hath said, 

This is my own, my native land.' 
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd, 
As home his footsteps he has turn'd, 
From wandering on a foreign strand V 

—Sir Walter Scott. 



PART V. 

PATRIOTISM. 



WAT TYLER. 



CHARLES DICKENS. 




URING the reign of Richard the Second, in 
England, the war with France being un- 
settled, the government wanted money to 
provide for the expenses that might arise 
out of it. Accordingly, a certain tax, called 
the Poll-tax, which had originated in the 
last reign, was ordered to be levied on the 
people. 

This was a tax on every person in the kingdom, male and 
female, above the age of fourteen. I have no need to repeat 
that the common people of England had long been suffering 
under great oppression. They were still the mere slaves of 
the lords of the land on which they lived, and were, on most 
occasions, harshly and unjustly treated. 

But they had begun, by this time, to think seriously of not 
bearing quite so much, and probably were emboldened by the 
French insurrection which had occurred a short time previ- 
ously. The people of Essex rose against the Poll tax, and 
being severely handled by the government officers, killed some 
of them. 

269 



270 PA TRIO TISM. 

At this very time one of the tax collectors, going his rounds 
from house to house, at Darford, in Kent, came to the cottage 
of Wat, a tiler by trade, and claimed the tax upon his daughter. 
Her mother, who was at home, declared that she was under 
the age of fourteen, upon which the collector (as other collect- 
ors had done in different parts of England) behaved in a very 
cruel and savage manner. Wat, the tiler, who was at work 
not far off, greatly incensed at the conduct of the collector, ran 
to the spot, and struck him dead at a blow. 

Instantly the people of that town uprose as one man. They 
made Wat Tyler their leader; they joined with the people of 
Essex, who were in arms under a priest, called Jack Straw ; 
they took out of Maidstone prison another priest, named John 
Ball, and, gathering in numbers as they went along, advanced, 
in a great, confused army of poor men, to Blackheath. 

The rioters, after entering London and doing a great deal 
of damage in the city, went to Mile End, to the number of 
sixty thousand, and the king met them there, and to him the 
rioters peaceably proposed four conditions : First, that neither 
they nor their children, nor any coming after them, should any 
more be slaves ; secondly, that the rent of the land should be 
fixed at a certain price of money, instead of being paid in 
service ; thirdly, that they should have liberty to buy and sell 
in all markets and public places, like other free men ; fourthly, 
that they should be pardoned for past offences. 

The incidents that took place are well described in the 
following dialogue by the poet Southey. The persons who 
participated in the discussion are Wat Tyler, John Ball, Hob 
Cartier, and Piers. 

Piers. So far, triumphant are we. How these nobles, 
These petty tyrants who so long oppressed us, 
Shrunk at the first resistance ! 

Cartier. These were powerful 

Only because we thought them so. 
Where is Jack Straw ? 



WAT TYLER. 271 

Tyler, Jack Straw is gone to the Tower 

To seize the king, and so to end resistance ! 

Ball. It was well judged ; fain would I spare the shedding 
Of human blood. Gain we that royal puppet, 
And all will follow fairly ; deprived of him, 
The nobles lose their pretext, nor will dare 
Rebel against the people's majesty. 
[Enter Herald.] 

Herald. Richard the Second, by the grace of God, 

Of England, Ireland, France and Scotland, King, 
Would parley with Wat Tyler ! 

Tyler. Let him know 

Wat Tyler is in Smithfield ! 

[Exit Herald.] 

I will parley 
With this young monarch ; as he comes to me, 
Trusting my honor, on your lives, I charge you, 
Let none attempt to harm him. 

Ball. The faith of courts 

Is but a weak dependence. You are honest ; 
And better is it even to die the victim 
Of credulous honesty than live preserved 
By the cold policy that still suspects. 
[Enter King, Walworth, Philpot, etc.] 

King. I would speak to thee, Wat Tyler ; bid the mob 
Retire awhile. 

Piers. Nay, do not go alone ; 
Let me attend you. 

Tyler. Wherefore should I fear ? 

Am I not armed with a just cause ? [Retires.] 

And I will boldly plead the cause of freedom. [Advances.] 

King. Tyler, why have you killed my officer, 

And led my honest subjects from their homes, 
Thus to rebel against the Lord's anointed? 

Tyler. Because they were oppressed. 

King: Was this the way 

To remedy the ill ? You should have tried 
By milder means ; petitioned to the throne ; 
The throne will always listen to petitions. 



272 PA TRIO TISM. 

Tyler. King of England : 

Petitioning for pity is most weak ! 
The sovereign people ought to demand justice ; 
I lead them to rebel against the Lord's anointed, 
Because his ministers have made him odious ; 
His yoke is heavy and his burden grievous. 

Why do we carry on this fearful war, 

To force upon the French a king they hate, 

Tearing our young men from their peaceful homes, 

Forcing his hard-earned fruits from the honest peasant, 

Distressing us to desolate our neighbors ? . 

Why is this ruinous poll tax imposed, 

But to support your court's extravagance 

And your mad title to the crown of France ? 

Shall we sit tamely down beneath these evils 

Petitioning for pity ? 

King of England : 
Why are we sold like cattle in your markets, 
Deprived of every privilege of man ? 
Must we lie tamely at our tyrant's feet, 
And like your spaniels, lick the hand that beats us ? 
You sit at ease in your gay palaces ! 
The costly banquet courts your appetite ; 
Sweet music courts your slumbers ; we, the while, 
Scarce, by hard toil, can earn a little food, 
And sleep scarce sheltered from the cold night wind; 
While your wild projects wrest the little from us 
Which might have cheered the wintry hour of age, 

The Parliament forever asks for more money ; 

We toil and sweat for money for your taxes ! 

Where is the benefit ? What good reap we 

From all the counsels of your government ? 

Think you that we should quarrel with the French ? 

What boots to us your victories, your glory ? 

We pay, we fight, you profit at your ease ; 

Do you not claim the country as your own ? 

Do you not call the venison of the forest, 

The birds of heaven, your own ; prohibiting us, 

Even though in want of food, to seize the prey 

Which nature offers? King, is all this just ? 

Think you we do not feel the wrongs we suffer ? 

The hour of retribution is at hand, 

And tyrants tremble, mark me, King of England ! 



GERMANICUS TO HIS MUTINOUS TROOPS. 



273 



Walworth. [Comes behind him and stabs him.~\ Insolent rebel, 
Threatening the King ! 

Piers. Vengeance ! Vengeance ! 

Hob. Seize the King ! 



King. 



Ball. 



King. 



I must be bold. [Advancing.] My friends and loving subjects, 

I will grant you all you ask ; you shall be free ; 

The tax shall be repealed — all, all you wish ; 

Your leader menaced me ; he deserved his fate. 

Quiet your angers. On my royal word, 

Your grievances all shall be done away ; 

Your vassalage abolished ; a free pardon 

Allowed to all ; so, help me, God, it shall be. 

Revenge, my brethren, beseems not Christians ; 
Send us the terms, signed with the seal of State ; 
We will await in peace. Deceive us not ; 
Act justly, so to excuse your late foul deed. 



The charter shall be drawn out. 
All shall be justly done. 



On mine honor, 



GERMANICUS TO HIS MUTINOUS TROOPS. 




N the year 14 A. D. the Roman soldiers of the 
Lower Rhine mutinied on receiving the news 
of the death of the Emperor Augustus, and 
accession of Tiberius. According to Tacitus, 
the following speech, by Germanicus, the 
consul, recalled the mutinous troops to their 
duty and restored discipline. 

" To this audience what name shall I give ? 
Can I call you Soldiers ? Soldiers ! You 
who have beset with arms the son of your Emperor — confined 
him in your trenches ? Citizens, can I call you ? You who 
have trampled under your feet the authority of the Senate ; 
who have violated the most awful sanctities, even those which 
18 



2 74 PA TRIO TISM. 

hostile States have ever held in respect — the rights of ambas- 
sadors and the laws of nations ? 

"Julius Caesar, by a single word, was able to quell a mutiny ; 
he spoke to the men who resisted his authority ; he called 
them Romans, and they returned to their allegiance. Augustus 
showed himself to the legions that fought at Actium, and 
the majesty of his countenance awed them into submission. 
The distance between me and those illustrious characters, I 
know, is great ; and yet, descended from them, with their 
blood in my veins, I should resent with indignation a parallel 
outrage from the soldiers of Syria or of Spain ; and will you, 
men of the First and the Twentieth Legions, the former enrolled 
by Tiberius himself, and the other his constant companions in 
so many battles, and by him enriched with so many bounties, 
will you thus requite his benefits ? 

" From every other quarter of the Empire Tiberius has 
received none but joyful tidings ; and must I wound his ears 
with the news of your revolt ? Must he learn from me, that 
neither the soldiers raised by himself, nor the veterans who 
fought under him, are willing to own his authority. Must he 
be told that neither exemptions from service, nor money 
lavishly bestowed, can appease the fury of ungrateful men ? 
Must I tell him that here centurions are butchered, tribunes 
expelled, ambassadors imprisoned ; the camp and the rivers 
polluted with blood; and that a Roman General drags out a 
precarious existence at the mercy of men implacable and 
mad ? 

" Wherefore, on the first day that I addressed you, did you 
wrest from me that sword which I was on the point of 
plunging into my heart ? Officious friends ! Greater was the 
kindness of that man who proffered me a sword. At all events, 
I should have fallen ere I had become aware of the enormities 
committed by my army. You would have chosen a General 
who, though he might leave my death unatoned for, would 
yet avenge the massacre of Varus and his three legions. May 
that revenge be still reserved for the Roman sword ! May the 



DE GENERA CY OF A THENS. 



275 



Gods withhold from the Belgic States, though now they court 
the opportunity, the credit and renown of retrieving the 
Roman name, and of humbling the German nations ! May 
thy spirit, O, deified Augustus ! which is received into heaven, 
— thy image, my father Drusus ! — prevail with these soldiers, 
who, even now, I see, are touched with a noble remorse ! May 
your inspiration dispel the disgrace that sits heavy upon 
them ; and may the rage of civil discord discharge itself on 
the enemies of Rome ! " Tacitus. 



DEGENERACY OF ATHENS. 



DEMOSTHENES. 




UCH, O, men of Athens ! were your ancestors : 
so glorious in the eye of the world; so boun- 
tiful and munificent in their country; so 
sparing, so modest, so self-denying to them- 
selves. What resemblance can we find, in 
the present generation, to these great men ? 
At a time when your ancient competitors 
have left you a clear stage, when the Lacede- 
monians are disabled, the Thebans employed 
in troubles of their own, when no other State whatever is in a 
condition to rival or molest you — in short, when you are at 
full liberty, when you have the opportunity and the power to 
become once more the sole arbiters of Greece — you permit, 
patiently, whole provinces to be wrested from you ; you lavish 
the public money in scandalous and obscure uses ; you suffer 
your allies to perish in time of peace, whom you preserved in 
time of war ; and, to sum up all, you yourselves, by your mer- 
cenary court, and servile resignation to the will and pleasure 
of designing, insidious leaders, abet, encourage and strengthen 
the most dangerous and formidable of your enemies. Yes, 
Athenians, I repeat it, you yourselves are the contrivers of 
your own ruin. 



276 



PATRIOTISM. 



Lives there a man who has confidence enough to deny it ? 
Let him arise and assign, if he can, any other cause of the 
success and prosperity of Philip. " But," you reply, " what 
Athens may have lost in reputation abroad, she has gained 
in splendor at home. Was there ever a greater appearance 
of prosperity and plenty? Is not the city enlarged? Are 
not the streets better paved, houses repaired and beautified ? " 
Away with such trifles ! Shall I be paid with counters ? An 
old square new vamped up ! a fountain ! an aqueduct ! — Are 
these acquisitions to boast of? Cast your eyes upon the 
magistrate under whose ministry you boast these precious 
improvements. Behold the despicable creature, raised all at 
once from dirt to opulence, from the lowest obscurity to the 
highest honors. Have not some of these upstarts built private 
houses and seats vying with the most sumptuous of our 
public palaces ? And how have their fortunes and their 
power increased, but as the Commonwealth has been ruined 
and impoverished ? 

DEFENCE OF PRA DEL TOR. 



J. A. WYLIE. 




EGOTIATIONS had been opened between 
the men of the valleys and the Duke of 
Savoy, and as they were proceeding satis- 
factorily, the Vaudois were without sus- 
picion of evil. This was the moment that 
La Trinita chose to attack them. He 
hastily assembled his troops, and on the 
night of the 16th of April, 1730, he marched 
them against the Pra Del Tor, hoping to enter it unopposed, 
and give the Vaudois " as sheep to the slaughter." 

The snows around the Pra were beginning to burn in the 
light of the morning when the attention of the people, who 



DEFENCE OF PR A DEL TOR. 277 

had just ended their united worship, was attracted by the un- 
usual sounds which were heard to issue from the gorge that 
led into the valley. On the instant six brave mountaineers 
rushed to the gateway that opens from the gorge. The long 
file of La Trinita's soldiers was seen advancing, two abreast, 
their helmets and cuirasses glittering in the light. The six 
Vaudois made their arrangements, and calmly waited till the 
enemy was near. The first two Vaudois, holding loaded mus- 
kets, knelt down. The second stood erect, ready to fire over 
the heads of the first two. The third two undertook the load- 
ing of the weapons as they were discharged. The invaders 
came on. As the first two of the enemy turned the rock, they 
were shot down by the two foremost Vaudois. The next two 
of the attacking force fell in like manner, by the shot of the 
Vaudois in the rear. The third rank of the enemy presented 
themselves only to be laid by the side of their comrades. 

In a few minutes a little heap of dead bodies blocked the 
pass, rendering impossible the advance of the accumulating 
file of the enemy in the chasm. 

Meanwhile, other Vaudois climbed the mountains that over- 
hung the gorge in which the Piedmontese army was im- 
prisoned. Tearing up the great stones with which the hillside 
was strewn, the Vaudois sent them rolling down upon the 
host. Unable to advance, from the wall of dead in front, and 
unable to flee, from the ever-accumulating masses behind, the 
soldiers were crushed in dozens by the falling rocks. 

Panic set in ; and panic in such a position was dreadful. 
Wedged together on the narrow ledge, with a murderous rain 
of rocks falling on them, their struggle to escape was frightful. 
They jostled one another, and trod each other under foot, 
while vast numbers fell over the precipice, and were dashed 
on the rocks or drowned in the .torrent. 

When those at the entrance of the valley, who were watching 
the result, saw the crystal of the Angrogno begin, about mid- 
day, to be changed into blood, "Ah " said they " The Pra Del 
Tor has been taken ; La Trinita has triumphed ; there flows 



278 



PATRIOTISM. 



the blood of the Vaudois." And, indeed, the Count, on begin- 
ning his march that morning, is said to have boasted that by 
noon the torrent of the Angrogna would be seen to change 
color; and so, in truth, it did. Instead of a pellucid stream, 
rolling along on a white, gravelly bed, which is its usual appear- 
ance at the mouth of the valley, it was now deeply dyed from 
recent slaughter. But when the few who had escaped the 
catastrophe returned to tell what had that day passed within 
the defiles of the Angrogna, it was seen that it was not the 
blood of the Vaudois, but the blood of the ruthless invaders, 
which dyed the waters of the Angrogna. The Count with- 
drew on that same night, to return no more to the valley. 



HENRY, V, TO HIS SOLDIERS AT THE SIEGE OF 

HARFLEUR. 




WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 



% s 



NCE more to the breach, dear friends, once more ; 
Or close the wall up with our English dead ! 
In peace, there's nothing so becomes a man 
As modest stillness and humility ; 
But when the blast of war blows in our ears, 
Then imitate the action of the tiger ; 
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, 
Disguise fair nature with hard-favored rage ; 
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect ; 
Let it pry through the portage of the head, 
Like the brass cannon. 

Now set the teeth, and stretch the nostril wide ; 
Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit 
To its full height ! On ! on, you noblest English, 
Whose blood is fetched from fathers of war proof ! 
Fathers that, like so many Alexanders, 
Have, in these parts, from morn till even fought, 
And sheathed their swords for lack of argument. 
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, 
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot ; 
Follow your spirit ; and upon this charge, 
Cry — God for Harry ! England ! and St. George ! 



SONG OF MARION'S MEN. 
SONG OF MARION'S MEN. 



279 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 




MONG the bold, energetic and faithful patriots of 
the South, no one holds a firmer place in the 
affections of the American people than General 
Francis Marion. His adventures were full of 
the spirit of romance, and his whole military life 
was an epic poem. The followers of Robin 
Hood were never more devoted to their chief 
than were the men of Marion's brigade to their 
beloved leader. He was born at Winyaw, near George- 
town, S. C, in 1732. When the Revolution broke out, he 
was found on the side of liberty, and was made captain in 
the second South Carolina regiment. He fought bravely in 
the battle at Fort Sullivan, on Sullivan's Island, and after 
many other valiant exploits he was made a Brigadier-General, 
and raised a brigade with which he continued in the service to 
the close of the war. He died on the 28th of February, 1795, 
on his plantation, near Eutaw, in the sixty-third year of his 
age. His last words were : " Thank God, since I came to 
man's estate I never intentionally done wrong to any man." 

On account of the celerity of his movements, and his success 
in avoiding capture when closely pressed, he was styled the 
" Swamp Fox " by the British. The following poem gives a 
graphic picture of his devoted band : — 

Our band is few, but true and tried, 

Our leader frank and bold ; 
The British soldier trembles 

When Marion's name is told. 
Our fortress is the good green wood, 

Our tent the cypress tree ; 
We know the forest round us, 

As seamen know the sea ; 



280 PA TRIO TISM. 

We know its walls of thorny vines, 

Its glades of reedy grass, 
Its safe and silent islands 

Within the dark morass. 

Woe to the English soldiery, 

That little dread us near ! 
On them shall light at midnight 

A strange and sudden fear; 
When, waking to their tents on fire, 

They grasp their arms in vain, . • 
And they who stand to face us 

Are beat to earth again ; 
And they who fly in terror deem 

A mighty host behind, 
And hear the tramp of thousands 

Upon the hollow wind. 

Then sweet the hour that brings release 

From danger and from toil ; 
We talk the battle over, 

And share the battle's spoil ; 
The woodland rings with laugh and shout, 

As if a hunt were up, 
And woodland flowers are gathered 

To crown the soldier's cup ; 
With merry songs we mock the wind 

That in the pine-top grieves, 
And slumber long and sweetly 

On beds of oaken leaves. 

Well knows the fair and friendly moom 

The band that Marion leads — 
The glitter of their rifles, 

The scampering of their steeds. 
'Tis life to guide the fiery barb 

Across the moonlit plain ; 
'Tis life to feel the night-wind 

That lifts his tossing mane. 
A moment in the British camp — 

A moment — and away ; 
Back to the pathless forest, 
Before the peep of day. 



COURAGE OF AN AMERICAN OFFICER. 



281 



Grave men there are by broad Santee, 

Grave men with hoary hairs ; 
Their hearts are all with Marion, 

For Marion are their prayers. 
And lovely ladies greet our band 

With kindliest welcoming, 
With smiles like those of Summer, 

And tears like those of Spring. 
For them we wear those trusty arms, 

And lay them down no more, 
Till we have driven the Briton 

Forever from our shore. 



COURAGE OF AN AMERICAN OFFICER. 




N 1777, during the American war, an officer 
in Virginia, having unintentionally offended 
another, received a challenge to fight a duel. 
He answered that he would not fight, for 
three reasons; first, not having committed 
any fault, he would not expose his life to 
gratify the caprice of an impetuous man; 
secondly, that he had a wife and children who 
were dear to him, and he would not do them 
the injustice to run the chance of plunging them into misery; 
and thirdly, that as his life was devoted to the service of his 
country, it would be in violation both of moral and civil duty 
to risk it in private quarrel. 

In consequence of his refusal his antagonist posted him as 
a coward, and he had the mortification of seeing himself 
shunned by the officers in general. 

Knowing he had not merited such disgrace, he resolved to 
put an end to it, and having furnished himself with a large 
hand-grenade, he went to the mess room where the officers 
were assembled. 

On his entrance they looked at him with disdain, and several 
of them said, " we don't associate with cowards." 



282 



PATRIOTISM. 



" Gentlemen," replied he, " I am no more a coward than any- 
one of you, though I am not such a fool as to forget my duty 
to my country and to my family ; as to real danger, we shall 
soon see who fears it the least. On saying this he lighted the 
fusee of the grenade, and threw it among them ; then, crossing 
his arms, he prepared to await the explosion. The affrighted 
officers immediately arose and ran towards the door in the 
greatest terror and confusion, tumbling over each other in their 
hurry to get out. The moment the room was cleared, our 
officer threw himself fiat on the floor, and the grenade ex- 
ploded, shattering the walls and ceilings, but without doing 
him any harm. After the explosion the fugitives ventured into 
the room, expecting to see the officer torn to pieces ; but judge 
their surprise and shame, on being received with a hearty 
laugh. 

From that moment they ceased to shun him, and to brand 
him with the epithet of coward. — Anonymous. 



TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE. 




OUSSAINT L'Ouverture, the black chieftain 
of Hayti, was a slave on the plantation 
" de Libertas," belonging to M. Bayou. 
When the rising of the negroes took place, 
in 1 79 1, he refused to join them until he 
had aided M. Bayou and his family to 
escape to Baltimore. The white man had 
discovered in Toussaint many noble quali- 
ties, and had instructed him in some of the first branches of 
education ; and the preservation of his life was owing to the 
negro's gratitude for his kindness. 

In 1 797 Toussaint L'Ouverture was appointed by the French 
Government, Commander-in-chief of the armies of St. 
Domingo, and as such signed the Convention with Gen. 
Maitland, for the evacuation of the island by the British. From 



TO USSAINT r O UVER TURE. 283 

this period until 1801, the island, under the government of 
Toussaint, was happy, tranquil and prosperous. The miserable 
attempt of Napoleon to reestablish slavery in St. Domingo, 
although it failed in its intended object, proved fatal to the 
negro chieftain. Treacherously seized by Le Clerc, he was 
hurried on board a vessel by night, and conveyed to France, 
where he was confined in a cold subterranean dungeon, at 
Besancon, where, in April, 1803, he died. It was the remark 
of Godwin, in his lectures, that the West India Islands, since 
their first discovery by Columbus, could not boast of a single 
name which deserves comparison with that of Toussaint 
L'Ouverture. 



" Toussaint ! thou most unhappy man of men ; 

Whether the whistling rustic tend his plow- 
Within thy hearing, or thou liest now 
Buried in some deep dungeon's earless den ; 
Oh, miserable chieftain ! — where and when 

Wilt thou find patience ? Yet, die not ; do thou 

Wear rather, in thy bonds, a cheerful brow ; 
Though fallen thyself, never to rise again, 

Live and take comfort ; thou hast left behind 
Powers that will work for thee — Air, Earth and Skies ; 

There's not a breathing of the common wind 
That will forget thee ; thou hast great allies : 
Thy friends are exultations, agonies, 

And love, and man's unconquerable mind. 

William Wordsworth. 



Sleep calmly in thy dungeon-tomb, 

Beneath Besancon' s alien sky, 
Dark Haytien ! for the time shall come — 

Yea, even now is nigh — 
When, everywhere, thy name shall be 

Redeemed from color's infamy ; 
And men shall learn to speak of thee 

As one of earth's great spirits, 
Born in servitude, and nursed in scorn, 

Casting aside the weary weight 

And fetters of its low estate, 



284 PA TRIO TISM. 



In that strong majesty of soul 

Which knows no color, time, or clime ; 
Which still hath spurned the base control 

Of tyrants through all time ! 
For other hands than mine may wreathe 
The laurel round thy brow of death, 
And speak thy praise, as one whose word 
A thousand fiery spirits stirred ; 
Who crushed his foemen as a worm ; 
Whose steps on human hearts fell firm ; 
Be mine the better task to find 
A tribute for thy lofty mind, 
Amidst whose gloomy vengeance shone 
Some milder virtues, all thine own ; 
Some gleams of feeling, pure and warm, 
Like sunshine on a sky of storm, 
Proofs that the negro's heart retains 
Some nobleness amidst its chains ; 
That kindness to the wronged is never 

Without its excellent reward, 
Holy to human-kind and ever 

Acceptable to God. 

John Greenleaf Whittier. 



"DEAD ON THE FIELD OF HONOR." 

HEOPHILE-MALO Corret de Latour d'Au- 
vergne, a brilliant linguist and a valiant 
soldier, surnamed The First Grenadier of 
France, was born at Carhaix, France, No- 
vember 23d, 1767, and met a heroic death 
at Oberhauser, Bavaria, June 27th, 1800. 

After quitting the college at Quimber, 
where he already distinguished himself by 
his philological studies and researches, he entered the Military 
School, and was quickly admitted to the regiment of Black 
Musketeers, and soon promoted to a sub-lieutenancy. Profiting 
by a leave of absence, in 1 781, he hurried away to Spain, where 
he did valiant service against the English. 




" DEAD ON THE FIELD OF HONOR:' 285 

When the French Revolution broke out, he remained true 
to the national flag - , and although already a captain before 
1789, he refused all advancement. In 1792, he was with the 
army of the Alps, and contributed powerfully to the first vic- 
tories over the enemies of France. He was the first to enter 
Chambery, sword in hand, at the head of his company. 

The year following he was sent to the Western Pyrennees, 
where, though nominally a captain, he found himself at the 
head of 8000 men. His division always formed the advance 
guard, and soon became the terror of the enemy, by whom it 
was styled the Infernal Column. The arrival of this corps on 
the field of battle was always the signal for victory, the im- 
petuosity of the men, and the rapidity of their movements 
being irresistible. 

In the intervals of inactivity, during the nineteen years of 
his military career, he returned each time to his favorite lin- 
guistic studies, and it was then that he composed his famous 
Polyglot Dictionary, in which the words and idioms of forty- 
two different languages and dialects are presented. 

His last term of service was in the capacity of a substitute 
for the twenty-second and last child, a delicate son, of his 
friend "Le Brigant. Latour went to Paris, and obtained per- 
mission to replace the son of his friend, and immediately after- 
ward joined the army in Zurich. Here his valiant exploits 
again brought him so prominently into notice that Napoleon 
sent him a sword, with the title of " The First Grenadier of 
France." This offer of promotion was also distasteful to him, 
and he sent word back to Bonaparte, "Among us soldiers, there 
is neither first nor last." He begged permission to rejoin his 
troops in his old capacity — not as the first, but as the oldest 
grenadier of France. 

The French next invaded Germany, and six days later he 
fell, pierced to the heart by the spear of a German Uhlan. 
His last words were : " I die satisfied ; it was my desire to 
terminate my life thus." The whole army went into mourning, 
and each of his soldiers contributed one day's pay toward pur- 



286 PA TRIO TISM. 

chasing a silver urn to hold his heart, which was carried at the 
head of his company. His sword was hung in the " Invalides," 
at Paris, and his name remained at the head of the register of 
the forty-sixth brigade until 1814, and every day, at roll-call, 
the oldest sergeant responded: "Dead on the Field of Honor!" 

— From the French. 



ZENOBIA, QUEEN OF PALMYRA. 

{A. D. 272.) 




|ODERN Europe has produced several illus- 
trious women who have sustained with 
glory the weight of empire; nor is our own 
age destitute of such distinguished charac- 
ters. But if we except the doubtful achieve- 
ments of Semiramis, Zenobia is, perhaps, the 
only female whose superior genius broke 
through the servile indolence imposed on 
her sex by the climate and manners of Asia. She claimed 
her descent from the Macedonian kings of Egypt, equalled in 
beauty her ancestor, Cleopatra, and far surpassed that princess 
in chastity and valor. Zenobia was esteemed the most lovely, 
as well as the most heroic of her sex. She was of a dark 
complexion. Her teeth were of a pearly whiteness, and her 
large black eyes sparkled with uncommon fire, tempered by 
the most attractive sweetness. Her voice was strong and har- 
monious. Her manly understanding was strengthened and 
adorned by study. She was not ignorant of the Latin tongue, 
but possessed, in equal perfection, the Greek, the Syriac and 
the Egyptian languages. She had drawn up for her own use 
an epitome of Oriental history, and familiarly compared the 
beauties of Homer and Plato under the tuition of the sublime 
Longinus. 

"This accomplished woman gave her hand to Odenathus, 
who, from a private station, raised himself to the dominion of 



ZENOBIA, QUEEN OF PALMYRA. 287 

the East. She soon became the friend and companion of a 
hero. In the intervals of war, Odenathus passionately de- 
lighted in the exercise of hunting; he pursued with ardor the 
wild beasts of the desert — lions, panthers, and bears ; and the 
ardor of Zenobia in that dangerous amusement was not in- 
ferior to his own. She had inured her constitution to fatigue, 
disdained the use of a covered carriage, generally appeared on 
horseback in a military habit, and sometimes marched several 
miles on foot at the head of the troops. 

" The success of Odenathus was, in a great measure, ascribed 
to her incomparable prudence and fortitude. Their splendid 
victories over the great king, whom they twice pursued as far 
as the gates of Ctesiphon, laid the foundations of their united 
fame and power. 

" Instead of the little passions which so frequently perplex a 
female reign, the steady administration of Zenobia was guided 
by the most judicious maxims of policy. If it was expedient 
to pardon, she could calm her resentment ; if it was necessary 
to punish, she could impose silence on the voice of pity. Her 
strict economy was accused of avarice ; yet on every proper 
occasion she appeared magnificent and liberal. She blended 
with the popular manners of Roman princes the stately pomp 
of the courts of Asia, and exacted from her subjects the same 
adoration that was paid to the successors of Cyrus. 

"Amidst the barren deserts of Arabia a few cultivated spots 
rise like islands out of the sandy ocean. Even the name of 
Tadmor or Palmyra, by its significance in the Syriac as well 
as in the Latin language, denoted the multitude of palm trees 
which afforded shade and verdure to that temperate region. 
The air was pure, and the soil, watered by some invaluable 
springs, was capable of producing fruits as well as corn. A 
place possessed of such singular advantages, and situated at a 
convenient distance between the Gulf of Persia and the 
Mediterranean, was soon frequented by the caravans which 
conveyed to the nations of Europe a considerable part of the 
rich commodities of India. Palmyra insensibly increased into 



288 PATRIOTISM. 

an opulent and independent city, and connecting the Roman 
and the Parthian monarchies by the mutual benefits of com- 
merce, was suffered to observe an humble neutrality, till, at 
length, after the victories of Trajan, the little republic sunk 
into the bosom of Rome, and flourished more than a hundred 
and fifty years in the subordinate though honorable rank of a 
colony. It was during that peaceful period, if we may judge 
from a few remaining inscriptions, that the wealthy Palmy- 
reans constructed those temples, palaces and porticoes of 
Grecian architecture, whose ruins, scattered over an extent of 
several miles, have excited the curiosity of our travelers. 
The elevation of Odenathus and Zenobia appeared to reflect 
new splendor on their country, and Palmyra, for awhile, stood 
forth the rival of Rome." 

The foregoing outline of the life and character of Zenobia, 
and the brief sketch of her capital city, are from the pen of the 
stately Gibbon, the historian of the Roman Empire. 

During the course of her reign, this queen of the East was 
accused of having ambitious designs, and we bring this article 
to an appropriate conclusion by giving her " defence," as por- 
trayed by another gifted writer : — 

" I am charged with pride and ambition. The charge is true, 
and I glory in its truth. Who ever achieved anything great 
in letters, arts, or arms, who was not ambitious ? Csesar was not 
more ambitious than Cicero. It was but in another way. All 
greatness is born of ambition. Let the ambition be a noble 
one, and who shall blame it ? I confess I did once aspire to 
be queen, not only of Palmyra, but of the East. That I am. 
I now aspire to remain so. Is it not an honorable ambition ? 
Does it not become a descendant of the Ptolemies and of 
Cleopatra? I am applauded by you all for what I have 
already done. You would not it should have been less. 

" But why pause here ? Is so much ambition praiseworthy, 
and more criminal ? Is it fixed in nature that the limits of 
this Empire should be Egypt on the one hand, the Hellespont 
and the Euxine on the other ? Were not Suez and Armenia 



ZENOBIA, QUEEN OF PALMYRA. 289 

more natural limits ? Or hath empire no natural limit, but is 
broad as the genius that can devise, and the power that can 
win. Rome has the West. Let Palmyra possess the East. 
Not that nature prescribes this and no more. The gods pros- 
pering, I mean that the Mediterranean shall not hem me in 
upon the west, or Persia on the east. Longinus is right. I 
would that the world were mine. I feel, within, the will and 
the power to bless it, were it so. 

"Are not my people happy? I look upon the past and the 
present, upon my nearer and remoter subjects,' and ask — nor 
fear the answer — Whom have I wronged ? What province 
have I oppressed, what city pillaged, and what region drained 
with taxes ? Whose life have I unjustly taken, or whose 
estates have I coveted or robbed? Whose honor have I 
wantonly assailed ? Whose rights, though of the weakest 
and poorest, have I violated ? I dwell, where I would ever 
dwell, in the hearts of my people. It is written in your faces, 
that I reign not more over you than within you. The founda- 
tion of my throne is not more power than love. 

" Suppose, now, my ambition should add another province to 
our realm. Would that be an evil ? The kingdoms already 
bound to us, by the joint acts of ourselves and the late royal 
Odenathus, we found discordant and at war. They are now- 
united and at peace. One harmonious whole has grown out 
of sundered and hostile parts. At my hands they receive a 
common justice and equal benefits. The channels of their 
commerce have I opened, and dug them deep and sure. 
Prosperity and plenty are in all their borders. The streets of 
our capital bear testimony to the distant and various industry, 
which here seeks its market. 

" This is no vain boasting ; receive it not so, good friends. 
It is but the truth. 

" He who traduces himself sins in the same way as he who 

traduces another. He who is unjust to himself, or less than 

just, breaks a law, as well as he who hurts his neighbor. I 

tell you what I am, and what I have done, that your trust for 

19 



290 



PATRIOTISM. 



the future may not rest upon ignorant grounds. If I am more 
than just to myself, rebuke me. If I have overstepped the 
modesty that becomes me, I am open to your censure, and 
will bear it. 

" But I have spoken that you may know your queen, not by 
her acts, but by her admitted principles. I tell you, then, 
that I am ambitious, that I crave dominion ; and while I live, 
will reign. Sprung from a line of kings, a throne is my 
natural seat. I love it. But I strive, too — you can bear me 
witness that I do — that it shall be, while I sit upon it, an 
honored, unpolluted seat. If I can, I will hang yet a brighter 
glory around it." William Ware. 

HENRY, V, AND THE HERMIT OF DREUX. 



ROBERT SOUTHEY. 



p£pp. E passed unquestioned through the camp 
Their heads the soldiers bent 
In silent reverence or begged 
?V#r*T X ^ bl essm S as he went ; 
\J///m/ And so the hermit passed along, 
*Kstex» And reached the royal tent. 



King Henry sate in his tent alone ; 

The map before him lay ; 
Fresh conquests he was planning there, 

To grace the future day. 

King Henry lifted up his eyes 

The intruder to behold ; 
With reverence he the hermit saw, 

For the holy man was old ; 
His look was gentle as a saint's, 

And yet his eye was bold. 

' Repent thee, Henry ! of the wrongs 
Which thou hast done this land ; 

O King ! repent in time, for know 
The judgment is at hand. 



HENRY, V, AND THE HERMIT OF DREUX. 291 

" I have passed forty years of peace 
Beside the river Blaise ; 
But what a weight of woe hast thou 
Laid on my latter days ! 

" I used to see along the stream 
The white sail gliding down, 
That wafted food, in better times, 
To yonder peaceful town. 

" Henry ! I never now behold 
The white sail gliding down ; 
Famine, Disease and Death, and Thou 
Destroy that wretched town. 

" I used to hear the traveler's voice 
As here he passed along, 
Or maiden, as she loitered home, 
Singing her evening song. 

" No traveler's voice may now be heard ; 
I fear he hastens by ; 
But I have heard the village maid 
In vain for succor cry. 

" I used to see the youths row down, 
And watch the dripping oar, 
As pleasantly their viol's tones 
Came softened to the shore. 

" King Henry, many a blackened corpse 
I now see floating down ! 
Thou man of blood ! repent in time, 
And leave this leaguered town." 

" I shall go on," King Henry cried, 
" And conquer this good land ; 
Seestthou not, hermit, that the Lord 
Hath given it to my hand ?" 

The hermit heard King Henry speak, 

And angrily looked down ; 
His face was gentle, and for that, 

More solemn was his frown. 



292 PA TRIO TISM. 

"What if no miracle from Heaven 
The murderer's arm control ; 
Think you, for that, the weight of blood 
Lies lighter on his soul ? 

" Thou conqueror King, repent in time, 
Or dread the coming woe ! 
For, Henry, thou hast heard the threat, 
And soon shalt feel the blow ! " 

King Henry forced a careless smile, 
As the hermit went his way ; 

But Henry soon remembered him, 
Upon his dying day. 



KOSCIUSKO. 



O, sacred truth ! thy triumph ceased awhile, 
And Hope, thy sister, ceased with thee to smile, 
When leagued oppression poured to northern wars 
Her whiskered pandoors and her fierce hussars, 
Waved her dread standard to the breeze of morn, 
Pealed her loud drum, and twanged her trumpet-horn 
Tumultuous horror brooded o'er her van, 
Presaging wrath to Poland — and to man ! 

Warsaw's last champion from her height surveyed, 
Wide o'er the fields, a work of ruin laid, — 
' O, Heaven ! " he cried, " my bleeding country save ! 
Is there no hand on high to shield the brave ? 
Yet, though destruction sweep these lovely plains, 
Rise, fellow-men ! Our country yet remains ! 
By that dread name, we wave the sword on high ! 
And swear for her to live ! — with her to die ! " 

He said, and on the rampart-height arrayed 
His trusty warriors, few, but undismayed ; 
Firm-paced and slow, a horrid front they form, 
Still as the breeze, but dreadful as the storm ; 
Low murmuring sounds along their banners fly — 
Revenge or death, the watchword and reply ; 
Then peeled the notes, omnipotent to charm, 
And the loud tocsin tolled their last alarm ! 



KOSCIUSKO. 



293 




In vain, alas ! in vain, ye gallant few ! 

From rank to rank your volleyed thunders flew ; 

O, bloodiest picture in the book of Time, 

Sarmatia fell, unwept, without a crime : 

Found not a generous friend, a pitying foe, 

Strength in her arms, nor mercy in her woe ! 

Dropped from her nerveless grasp the shattered spear, 

Closed her bright eye, and curbed her high career ; 

Hope for a season bade the world farewell, 

And Freedom shrieked as Kosciusko fell ! 

Thomas Campbell. 



I HE virtuous hero of Poland, Thaddeus Kos- 
ciusko, was born in Lithuania, and educated 
at Warsaw. When very young he was in- 
formed that the Americans were preparing 
to shake off the yoke of Britain. His 
ardent and generous mind caught with en- 
thusiasm the opportunity thus afforded for 
aspiring genius, and from that moment he 
became the devoted soldier of liberty. 

His rank in the American army afforded him no oppor- 
tunity to greatly distinguish himself. But he was regarded 
throughout his service for all the qualities, which adorn the 
human character. His heroic valor in the field could only be 
equaled by his moderation and affability in the walks of 
private life. He was idolized by the soldiers for his bravery, 
and beloved and respected by the officers for the goodness of 
his heart and the generous qualities of his mind. 

Contributing greatly, by his exertions, to the establishment 
of the independence of America, he might have remained and 
shared the blessings which it dispensed under the protection 
of a chief who loved and honored him, and in the bosom of a 
people whose independence he had so bravely fought to 
achieve ; but Kosciusko had other views ; he had drunk deep 
of the principles of the American revolution, and he wished to 
procure the same advantages for his native country — for 
Poland, which had a claim to all his efforts, to all his services. 



294 PA TRIO TISM. 

That unhappy nation groaned under a complication of evils 
which had scarcely a parallel in history. The mass of the 
people were the abject slaves of the nobles ; the nobles, torn 
into factions, were alternately the instruments and the victims 
of their powerful and ambitious neighbors. By intrigues, cor- 
ruption and force, some of its fairest provinces had been sepa- 
rated from the republic ; and the people, like beasts, transferred 
to foreign despots, who were again watching a favorable 
moment for a second dismemberment. To regenerate a people 
thus debased; to obtain for a country thus circumstanced the 
blessings of liberty and independence, was a work of as much 
difficulty as danger. But to a mind like Kosciusko's, the 
difficulty and danger of an enterprise served but as a stimulant 
to undertake it. 

The annals of these times give us no detailed account of the 
progress of Kosciusko in accomplishing his great work from 
the period of his return from America to the adoption of the 
new constitution in Poland in 1791. This interval, however, 
of apparent inaction was most usefully employed to illumine 
the mental darkness which enveloped his countrymen ; to 
stimulate the ignorant and bigoted peasantry with the hope of 
a future emancipation ; to teach a proud but gallant nobility 
that true glory is only to be found in the paths of duty and 
patriotism. Interests the most opposed, prejudices the most 
stubborn, and habits the most inveterate, were reconciled, dis- 
sipated and broken by the ascendancy of his virtues and 
example. The storm which he had foreseen, and for which he 
had been preparing, at length burst upon Poland. A feeble 
and unpopular government bent before its fury, and submitted 
itself to the yoke of the Russian invader. But the natives 
disdained to follow its example ; in their extremity every eye 
was turned on the hero who had already fought their battles ; 
the sage who had enlightened them ; and the patriot who had 
set the example of personal sacrifices to accomplish the eman- 
cipation of the people. 

Kosciusko made his first campaign as brigadier-general, 



KOSCIUSKO. 295 

under orders of Prince John Poniatowski. In the second, in 
1794, he was appointed generalissimo of Poland, with unlimited 
powers, until the enemy should be driven from the country. 

Without funds, without magazines, without fortresses, Kos- 
ciusko maintained his army nine months against forces in- 
finitely superior. Poland then only existed in his camp. 
Devotedness made up for want of resources, and courage sup- 
plied the deficiency of arms; for the general had imparted his 
noble character to all his soldiers. Like him, they knew no 
danger, dreaded no fatigues, when the honor and liberty of 
Poland were pending; like him, they endeavored to lessen the 
sacrifices which were required of the inhabitants for national 
independence; and their obedience to their venerated chief was 
the more praiseworthy as it was voluntary. He held his 
authority by no other tenure than that of his virtues. Guided 
by his talents, and led by his valor, his undisciplined and ill- 
armed militia charged with effect the veteran Russians and 
Prussians. The mailed cuirassiers of the Great Frederick, for 
the first time, broke and fled before the cavalry of Poland. 
Hope filled the breasts of the patriots. ' After a long night, the 
dawn of an apparently glorious day broke upon Poland./ But 
to the discerning eye of Kosciusko the light which it shed was of 
that sickly and portentous appearance which indicated a storm 
more dreadful than that which he had resisted. He prepared 
to meet it with firmness, but with means entirely inadequate. 

In addition to the advantages of numbers, of tactics, of dis- 
cipline, and inexhaustible resources, the combined despots had 
secured a faction in the heart of Poland. The unequal strug- 
gle could not be long maintained, and the day at length came 
which was to decide the fate of Poland and its hero. Heaven, 
for wise purposes, determined that it should be the last of 
Polish liberty; it was decided, indeed, before the battle com- 
menced. The traitor, Pinoski, who covered with a detachment 
the advance of the Polish army, abandoned his position'to the 
enemy and retreated. 

Kosciusko was astonished but not dismayed. The dispo- 



296 PATRIOTISM. 

sition of his army would have done honor to Hannibal. The 
succeeding conflict was terrible. When the talents of the 
general could no longer direct the mingled mass of combatants, 
the arm of the warrior was brought to the aid of his soldiers. 
He performed prodigies of valor. The fabled prowess of Ajax, 
in defending the Grecian ships, was realized by the Polish hero. 
Nor was he badly seconded by his troops. As long as his 
voice could guide, or his example fire their valor, they were 
irresistible. In this unequal contest Kosciusko was long seen, 
and finally lost to their view. He fell, covered with wounds, 
and a Cossack was on the point of piercing one of the best 
hearts that ever warmed a virtuous bosom, when an officer in- 
terposed. "Suffer him to execute his purpose," said the 
bleeding hero; "I am the devoted soldier of my country, and 
will not survive its liberties." The name of Kosciusko struck 
to the heart of the Tartar, like that of Marius to the Cimbrian 
warrior. The uplifted weapon dropped from his hand. 

Kosciusko was conveyed to the dungeons of St. Petersburg ; 
and to the eternal disgrace of the Empress Catharine, she 
made him the object of her vengeance, when he could no 
longer be the object of her fears. But the Emperor Paul, on 
his accession to the throne, thought he could not grant the 
Polish nation a more acceptable favor than to restore to 
liberty the hero whom they regretted. He himself announced 
to General Kosciusko that his captivity was at an end. He 
wished him to accept, moreover, a present of fifty thousand 
ducats of Holland; but the General refused it. Kosciusko 
preferred rather to depend for subsistence on the recompense 
to which his services in America had entitled him. 

With this humble fortune, obtained in so honorable a way, 
he lived for awhile in the United States ; then in France, near 
Fontainbleau, in the family of Zeltner ; and lastly, in Switzer- 
land. From that time he refused to take any part in the 
affairs of his country, for fear of endangering the national 
tranquillity, the offers that were made to him being accom- 
panied with no sufficient guarantee. 



KOSCIUSKO. 297 

Bonaparte often endeavored to draw Kosciusko from his 

retirement, and once issued an address to the Poles in his 

name ; but though the virtuous general still loved his country, 

he knew well that its emancipation could not be achieved 

under such auspices. Though an exile from his country, the 

Poles still considered themselves as his children, and presented, 

with just pride, to other nations, the model of the virtues of 

their country — that man, so pure and upright, so great at the 

head of an army, so modest in private life, so formidable to 

his enemies in battle, so humane and kind to the vanquished, 

and so zealous for the glories and independence of his country. 

In the invasion of France, in 1814, some Polish regiments 

in the service of Russia passed through the village where the 

exiled patriot then lived. Some pillaging of the inhabitants 

brought Kosciusko from his cottage. " When I was a Polish 

soldier," said he, addressing the plunderers, " the property of 

the peaceful citizen was respected." "And who art thou," 

said an officer, "who addressest us with a tone of authority ? " 

" I am Kosciusko." There was magic in the word. It ran 

from corps to corps. The march was suspended. They gathered 

round him, and gazed with astonishment and awe upon the 

mighty ruin he presented. " Could it indeed be their hero," 

whose name was identified with that of their country ? A 

thousand interesting reflections burst upon their minds. They 

remembered his patriotism, his devotion to liberty, his 

triumphs, and his glorious fall. Their iron hearts were 

softened, and the tear of sensibility trickled down their 

weather-beaten faces. We can easily conceive what would be 

the feelings of the hero himself in such a scene. His great 

heart must have heaved with emotion, to find himself once 

more surrounded by the companions of his glory ; and that he 

would have been on the point of saying to them — 

" Behold your general, come once more 
To lead you on to laureled victory, 
To fame, to freedom ! " 

The delusion could have lasted but for a moment. He was 



298 PATRIOTISM. 

himself, alas ! a miserable cripple ; and for them, they were no 
longer the soldiers of liberty, but the instruments of ambition 
and tyranny. Overwhelmed with grief at the reflection, he 
would retire to his cottage to mourn afresh over the miseries 
of his country. 

Kosciusko died at Solene, on the 15th of October, 1817. A 
fall from his horse, by which he was dragged over a precipice, 
not far from Vevay, was the cause of his death. A funeral 
service, in honor of him, was celebrated in the church of St. 
Roche, in Paris, which was honored with the most distinguished 
personages of every nation then in the French capital. The 
name of Kosciusko belongs to the civilized world, and his 
virtues to humanity. Poland laments in him a patriot whose 
life was consecrated to the cause of her liberty and independ- 
ence. America includes him among her illustrious defenders. 
France and Switzerland admire him as the man of beneficence 
and virtue ; and Russia, by whom his country was conquered, 
never beheld a man more unshaken in his principles, or firmer 
in adversity. — Anonymous. 

TELL ON HIS NATIVE MOUNTAINS. 



J. SHERIDAN KNOWLES. 

<^@^> 

^j^jpllll^NCE more I breathe the mountain air ; once more 

I tread my own free hills ! My lofty soul 

Throws all its fetters off in its proud flight. 

'Tis like the new-fledged eaglet, whose strong wing 

Soars to the sun it long has gazed upon 

With eye undazzled. O ye mighty race, 

That stand like frowning giants fixed to guard 

My own proud land, why did ye not hurl down 

The thundering avalanche when at your feet 

The base usurper stood ? 

A touch, a breath, 
Nay, even the breath of prayer, ere now, has brought 
Destruction on the hunter's head ; and yet 
The tyrant passed in safety. God of heaven ! 




TELL ON HIS NATIVE MOUNTAINS. 299 

Where slept thy thunderbolts ? liberty ! 
Thou choicest gift of Heaven, and wanting which 
Life is as nothing, hast thou then forgot 
Thy native home ? Must feet of slaves 
Pollute this glorious scene ? 

It cannot be ! 
Even as the smile of heaven can pierce the depths 
Of these dark caves, and bid the wild flowers bloom 
In spots where man has never dared to tread, 
So thy sweet influence still is seen amid 
These beetling cliffs. Some hearts still beat for thee, 
And bow alive to Heaven ; thy spirit lives ; 
Ay, and shall live when even the very name 
Of tyrant is forgot. 

Lo ! while I gaze 
Upon the mist that wreathes yon mountain's brow, 
The sunbeam touches it, and it becomes 
A crown of glory on his hoary head ; 
Oh ! is not this a presage of the dawn 
Of freedom o'er the world ? While kneeling thus, I vow 
To live for freedom, or with her to die ! 

Oh, with what pride I used 
To walk these hills, and look up to my God 
And bless him that it was so ! It was free ; 
From end to end, from cliff to lake, 'twas free; 
FREE as our torrents are, that leap our rocks, 
And plow our valleys without asking leave; 
Or as our peaks, that wear their caps of snow 
In very presence of the regal sun ! 
How happy was I in it then ! I loved 
Its very storms I Yes ; I have sat and eyed 
The thunder breaking from his cloud, and smiled 
To see him shake his lightnings o'er my head, 
And think I had no master save his own ! 

Ye know the jutting cliff, round which a track 
Up hither winds, whose base is but the brow 
To such another one, with scanty room 
For two abreast to pass ? O'ertaken there 
By the mountain blast, I've laid me fiat along, 
And, while gust followed gust more furiously, 



300 



PATRIOTISM. 



As if to sweep me o'er the horrid brink, 
And I have thought of other lands, where storms 
Are summer flaws to those of mine, and just 
Have wished me there — the thought that mine was free 
Has checked that wish, and I have raised my head, 
And cried in thraldom to that furious wind, 
" Blow on ! this is the land of LIBERTY ! " 



AGAINST TAXING AMERICA. 




EDMUND BURKE. 



OU have an act of Parliament stating that 
it is expedient to raise a revenue in 
America. Sir, leave America, if she has 
taxable matter in her, to tax herself. Be 
content to bind America by laws of 
trade; you have always done it. Let 
this be your reason for binding their 
trade. Do not burden them by taxes; 
you were not used to do so from the beginning. Let this be 
your reason for not taxing. These are the arguments of states 
and kingdoms. Leave the rest to the schools; for there only 
may they be discussed with safety. 

But if, intemperately, unwisely, fatally, you sophisticate and 
poison the very source of government, by urging subtle 
deductions, and consequences odious to those who govern, 
from the unlimited and illimitable nature of supreme sove- 
reignty, you will teach them by these means to call that 
sovereignty itself in question. When you drive him hard, the 
boar will surely turn upon the hunters. If that sovereignty 
and their freedom cannot be reconciled, which will they take? 
They will cast your sovereignty in your face. Nobody will be 
argued into slavery. 

Sir, let the gentlemen on the other side call forth all their 
ability ; let the best of them get up and tell me what one 



AGAINST TAXING AMERICA. 



301 



character of liberty the Americans have, and what one brand 
of slavery they are free from, if they are bound in their 
property and industry by all the restraints you can imagine on 
commerce, and at the same time are made pack horses of 
every tax you choose to impose, without the least share in 
granting them. When they bear the burdens of unlimited 
monopoly, will you bring them to bear the burdens of 
unlimited revenue too ? The Englishman in America will 
feel that this is slavery ; that it is legal slavery will be no com- 
pensation either to his feelings or his understanding. 



AGAINST BRIBERY. 



DEMOSTHENES. 




T were better, O Athenians ! to die ten thousand 
deaths, than to be guilty of a servile acquies- 
cence in the usurpations of Philip. Not only 
is he no Greek, and no way allied to Greece, 
but he sprang from a part of the barbarian 
world unworthy to be named — from Mace- 
donia — where formerly we could not find a 
slave fit to purchase ! And why is it that the 
insolence of this man is so tamely tolerated ? 
Surely there must be some cause why the Greeks, who were 
once so jealous of their liberty, now show themselves so basely 
submissive. It is this, Athenians ! They were formerly im- 
pelled by a sentiment which was more than a match for Persian 
gold ; a sentiment which maintained the freedom of Greece, 
and wrought her triumphs by sea and land, over all hostile 
powers. It was no subtle or mysterious element of success. 
It was simply this — an abhorrence of traitors ; of all who ac- 
cepted bribes from those princes who were prompted by the 
ambition of subduing, or the base intent of corrupting, Greece. 
To receive bribes was accounted a crime of the blackest dye 



302 PA TRIO TISM. 

— a crime which called for all the severity of public justice. 
No petitioning for mercy; no pardon was allowed. Those 
favorable conjunctures with which fortune oftentimes assists 
the supine against the vigilant, and renders men, even when 
most regardless of their interests, superior to those who exert 
their utmost efforts, could never be sold by orator or general, 
as in these degenerate days. Our mutual confidence, our 
settled hatred and distrust of all tyrants and barbarians, could 
not be impaired or turned aside by the force of money. 

But now, opportunity, principles, private honor and the 
public good, are exposed to sale as in a market ; and in ex- 
change we have that pernicious laxity which is destroying the 
safety, the very vitals of Greece. Let a man receive a bribe, 
he is envied ; let him confess it, he provokes laughter ; let him 
be convicted, he is pardoned ! His very accusation only 
awakens resentment, so thoroughly is public sentiment cor- 
rupted ! Richer, more powerful, better prepared than ever 
before, we lose all our advantages through these traffickers in 
our country's welfare. 

How was it formerly ? Listen to the decree which your 
ancestors inscribed on a brazen column erected in the citadel : 
" Let Arthmius of Zelia, the son of Pythonox, be accounted 
infamous, and an enemy to the Athenians and their allies, both 
he and all his race ! " Then comes the reason of his sentence: 
" Because he brought gold from Media into Peloponnesus." 
This is the decree. And now, in the name of all the gods, 
think upon it ! Think what wisdom, what dignity appeared 
in this action of our ancestors ! This receiver of bribes they 
declare an enemy to them and their confederates, and that he 
and his posterity shall be infamous ! And the sentence im- 
ported something more ; for in the laws relating to capital 
cases it is enacted that, " when the legal punishment of a 
man's crime cannot be inflicted, he may be put to death." And 
it was accounted meritorious to kill him ! " Let not the in- 
famous man," says the law, " be permitted to live ; " implying 
that the citizen is free from guilt who executes this sentence. 



RIENZI'S ADDRESS. 



303 



Such was the detestation in which bribery was held by our 
fathers! And hence was it that the Greeks were a terror to 
the barbarians — not the barbarians to the Greeks ! Hence 
was it that wars were fair and open; that battles were fought, 
not with gold, but steel; and won, if won at all, not by treachery, 
but by force of arms. 



RIENZI'S ADDRESS. 



MARY RUSSELL MILFORD. 



b 



i| t RIENDS 
1 



I come not here to talk ! Ye know too well 
The story of our thraldom — we are slaves ! 
The bright sun rises to his course, and lights 
A race of slaves ! He sets, and his last beam 
Falls on a slave ! — not such as, swept along 
By the full tide of power, the conqueror leads 
To crimson glory and undying fame ; 
But base, ignoble slaves — slaves to a horde 
Of petty tyrants, feudal despots, lords, 
Rich in some dozen paltry villages, 
Strong in some hundred spearmen — only great 
In that strange spell, a name ! Each hour, dark fraud, 
Or open rapine, or protected murder, 
Cries out against them. But this very day, 
An honest man, my neighbor — there he stands — 
Was struck — struck like a dog — by one who wore 
The badge of Ursini ! because, forsooth, 
He tossed not high his ready cap in air, 
Nor lifted up his voice in servile shouts, 
At sight of that great ruffian ! Be we men, 
And suffer such dishonor ? Men, and wash not 
The stain away in blood ? Such shames are common. 
I have known deeper wrongs. I that speak to you, 
I had a brother once, a gracious boy, 
Full of all gentleness, of calmest hope, 
Of sweet and quiet joy ; there was the look 
Of Heaven upon his face, which limners give 
To the beloved disciple. How I loved 
That gracious boy ! Younger by fifteen years ; 
Brother at once and son ! He left my side. 



304 



PATRIOTISM. 



A summer bloom on his fair cheeks, a smile 

Parting his innocent lips. In one short hour, 

The pretty, harmless boy was slain ! I saw 

The corse, the mangled corse, and then I cried 

For vengeance ! Rouse, ye Romans ! rouse, ye slaves ! 

Have ye brave sons ? Look, in the next fierce brawl, 

To see them die ! Have ye fair daughters ? Look 

To see them live, torn from your arms, distained, 

Dishonored ! and if ye dare call for justice, 

Be answered by the lash ! Yet this is Rome, 

That sat on her seven hills, and from her throne 

Of beauty ruled the world ! Yet we are Romans ! 

Why, in that elder day, to be a Roman 

Was greater than a king ! — and once again — 

Hear me, ye walls, that echoed to the tread 

Of either Brutus ! — once .again, I swear, 

The eternal city shall be free ! Her sons 

Shall walk with princes ! 



CINCINNATUS. 



OLIVER GOLDSMITH. 




N assembly was now appointed to choose another 
Consul, when the Senate fixed upon Quintius 
Cincinnatus. Cincinnatus had, for some time, 
given up all views of ambition, and retired to 
his little farm, where the deputies of the Senate 
found him holding the plow, and dressed in the 
mean attire of a laboring . husbandman. He 
appeared but little elevated with the addresses 
of ceremony, and the pompous habits they brought him ; and 
upon declaring to him the Senate's pleasure, he testified rather 
a concern that his aid should be wanted. He naturally pre- 
ferred the charms of country retirement to the fatiguing splen- 
dors of office, and only said to his wife, as they were leading 
him away, " I fear, my Attilia, that, for this year, our little 



CINCINNATUS. 305 

fields must remain unsown." Thus, taking a tender leave, he 
departed for the city, where both parties were strongly inflamed 
against each other. 

The new Consul, however, was resolved to side with neither ; 
but, by a strict attention to the interests of his country, instead 
of gaining confidence of faction, to secure the esteem of all. 
And having at length, by his moderation, humanity, and jus- 
tice, restored that tranquillity to the public which he so much 
loved himself, he again gave up the splendors of ambition, to 
enjoy his little farm with the greater relish. 

Cincinnatus was not long retired from his office, when a 
fresh exigency of the State again turned all eyes upon him, 
whom they resolved to make Dictator. Cincinnatus, the 
only person in whom Rome could now place her dependence, 
was found, as before, by the messengers of the Senate, laboring 
in his little field, with cheerful industry. He was at first 
astonished at the ensigns of unbounded power with which the 
deputies came to invest him ; but still more at the approach 
of the principal of the Senate, who had come out to meet him 
on his approach. A dignity so unlooked for, however, had no 
effect upon the simplicity or integrity of his manners; and 
being now possessed of absolute power, and called upon to 
nominate the Master of the Horse, he chose a poor man, named 
Tarquilius, one who, like himself, despised riches when they 
led to dishonor. 

Upon entering the city, the Dictator put on a serene look, and 
by his prompt measures, and the confidence which he inspired, 
effected the complete deliverance of his country from the 
imminent peril with which it had been threatened. Having 
rescued a Roman army from inevitable destruction ; having 
defeated a powerful enemy ; having taken their city, and still 
more, and having refused any part of the spoil, he resigned 
his dictatorship, after having enjoyed it but fourteen days. 
The Senate would have enriched him, but he declined their 
proffers, choosing to retire once more to his farm and his 
cottage, content with temperance and fame. 
20 



306 



PATRIOTISM. 
FATE OF THE INDIANS, 



JOSEPH STORY. 




N the fate of the Aborigines of our country — 
the American Indians — there is much to 
awaken our sympathy, and much to disturb 
the sobriety of our judgment; much which 
may be urged to excuse their own atroci- 
ties ; much in their character which betrays 
us into an involuntary admiration. If they 
had the vices of savage life, they had the 
virtues also. They were true to their country, 
to their friends, and their homes. If they forgave not an injury, 
neither did they forget kindness. If their vengeance was terrible, 
their fidelity and generosity were unconquerable also. Their 
love, like their hate, stopped not on this side of the grave. 

But where are they ? Where are the villages, and warriors 
and youth ? the sachems and tribes ? the hunters and their 
families ? They have perished ! They are consumed. The 
wasting pestilence has not alone done the mighty work. No — 
nor famine nor war. There has been a mightier power, a 
moral canker, which has eaten into their heart cores — a plague, 
which the touch of the white man communicated — a poison 
which betrayed them into a lingering ruin. The winds of the 
Atlantic fan not a single region which they may now call their 
own. Already the last feeble remnants of the race are pre- 
paring for their journey beyond the Mississippi. 

I see them leave their miserable homes, the aged, the help- 
less, the women and the warriors, " few and faint, yet fearless 
still." The ashes are cold on their native hearths. The smoke 
no longer curls round their lowly cabins. They move on with 
a slow, unsteady step. The white man is upon their heels, for 
terror or dispatch, but they heed him not. They turn to take 
a last look of their deserted villages. They cast a last glance 



IRISH ALIENS. 



307 



upon the graves of their fathers. They shed no tears ; they 
utter no cries ; they heave no groans. There is something in 
their hearts which passes speech. There is something in their 
looks, not of vengeance or submission, but of hard necessity, 
which stifles both ; which chokes all utterance ; which has no 
aim or method. It is courage absorbed in despair. They 
linger but for a moment. Their look is onward. They have 
passed the fatal stream. It shall never be repassed by them — 
no, never. Yet there lies not between us and them an im- 
passable gulf. They know and feel that there is for them still 
one remove further, not distant, not unseen: it is to the general 
burial-ground of the race. 



IRISH ALIENS. 



RICHARD LALOR SHIEL. 
In reply to Lord Lyndhurst (1837), who had stigmatized the Irish as aliens. 




[HERE is a man of great abilities — not a 
l^ member of this house, but whose talents 
and boldness have placed him in the top- 
most place in his party — who has been 
heard to speak of the Irish as " aliens." 
Disdaining all imposture, and abandoning 
all reserve, he distinctly and audaciously 
tells the Irish people that they are not 
entitled to the same privileges as Englishmen : that they are 
" aliens? Aliens ? Good heavens ! Was Arthur, Duke of 
Wellington, in the House of Lords, and did he not start up 
and exclaim, "Hold/ I have seen the aliens do their duty!" 
The " battles, sieges, fortunes that he has passed," ought to 
have come back upon him. He ought to have remembered 
that, from the earliest achievement in which he displayed that 
military genius which has placed him foremost in the annals 
of modern warfare, down to that last and surpassing combat, 



308 PA TRIO TISM. 

which has made his name imperishable — from Assaye to 
Waterloo — the Irish soldiers, with whom your armies are 
filled, were the inseparable auxiliaries to the glory with which 
his unparalleled successes have been crowned. 

Whose were the arms that drove your bayonets at Vimiera 
through the phalanxes that never reeled in the shock of war 
before ? What desperate valor climbed the steeps and filled the 
moats of Badajos ? All, all his victories should have rushed 
and crowded back upon his memory; Vimiera, Badajos, Sala- 
manca, Albuera, Toulouse ; and last of all, the greatest, 
Waterloo. Tell me, for you were there — I appeal to the gallant 
soldier before me {Sir Henry Hardinge), who bears, I know, a 
generous heart in an intrepid breast — tell me, for you must 
needs remember — on that day, when the destinies of mankind 
were trembling in the balance, while death fell in showers; 
when the artillery of France, leveled with the precision of the 
most deadly science, played upon them ; when her legions, 
incited by the voice, inspired by the example of their mighty 
leader, rushed again and again to the onset — tell me if, for an 
instant, when to hesitate for an instant was to be lost, the 
" aliens" blenched ! And when, at length, the moment for the 
last decisive movement had arrived ; when the valor, so long 
wisely checked, was at last let loose; when, with words 
familiar but immortal, the great captain commanded the great 
assault — tell me if Catholic Ireland, with less heroic valor than 
the natives of your own glorious isle, precipitated herself upon 
the foe ! The blood of England, Scotland, Ireland flowed in 
the same stream, drenched the same field. When the chill 
morning dawned, their dead lay cold and stark together; in 
the same deep pit their bodies were deposited ; the green corn 
of spring is now breaking from their commingled dust ; the 
dew falls from heaven upon their union in the grave ! Par- 
takers in every peril; in the glory shall we not be allowed to 
participate ? — and shall we be told, as a requital, that we are 
estranged from the noble country for whose salvation our life- 
blood was poured out? 



SPARTACUS TO THE GLADIATORS AT CAPUA. 309 
SPARTACUS TO THE GLADIATORS AT CAPUA. 



REV. ELIJAH KELLOGG. 




E call me chief; and ye do well to call him 
chief who for twelve long years has met 
upon the arena every shape of man or beast 
the broad Empire of Rome could furnish, 
and who never yet lowered his arm. If 
there be one who can say that ever, in public 
fight or private brawl, my actions did belie 
my tongue, let him stand forth. If there 
be three in all your company dare face me on the bloody sands, 
let them come on. And yet I was not always thus — a hired 
butcher, a savage chief of still more savage men. My ances- 
tors came from old Sparta, and settled among the vine-clad 
rocks and citron groves of Syrasella. My early life ran quiet 
as the brooks by which I sported; and when, at noon, I 
gathered the sheep beneath the shade, and played upon the 
shepherd's flute, there was a friend, the son of a neighbor, to 
join me in the pastime. We led our flocks to the same pas- 
ture, and partook together our rustic meal. One evening, after 
the sheep were folded, and we were all seated beneath the 
myrtle which shaded our cottage, my grandsire, an old man, 
was telling of Marathon and Leuctra ; and how, in ancient 
times, a little band of Spartans, in a defile of the mountains, 
had withstood a whole army. I did not then know what war 
was; but my cheeks burned, I knew not why, and I clasped the 
knees of that venerable man, until my mother, parting the hair 
from off my forehead, kissed my throbbing temples, and bade 
me go to rest and think no more of those old tales and 
savage wars. That very night the Romans landed on our coast. 
I saw the breast that had nourished me trampled by the hoof of 
the war horse ; the bleeding body of my father flung amidst 
the blazing rafters of our dwelling ! To-day I killed a man in 



310 PA TRIO TISM. 

the arena; and when I broke his helmet clasps, behold! he was 
my friend. He knew me, smiled faintly, gasped, and died — 
the same sweet smile upon his lips that I had marked, when, 
in adventurous boyhood, we scaled the lofty cliff to pluck the 
first ripe grapes and bear them home in childish triumph ! I 
told the praetor that the dead man had been my friend, 
generous and brave; and I begged that I might bear away the 
body, to burn it on a funeral pile, and mourn over its ashes. 
Ay ! upon my knees, amid the dust and blood of the arena, I 
begged that poor boon, while all the assembled maids and 
matrons, and the holy virgins they call Vestals, and the rabble 
shouted in derision, deeming it rare sport, forsooth, to see 
Rome's fiercest gladiator turn pale and tremble at sight of that 
piece of bleeding clay ! And the praetor drew back as I were 
pollution, and sternly said, " Let the carrion rot; there are no 
noble men but Romans." And so, fellow-gladiators, must you, 
and so must I, die, like dogs. O Rome ! Rome ! thou hast 
been a tender nurse to me. Ay ! thou hast given to that poor, 
gentle, timid shepherd lad, who never knew a harsher tone 
than a flute note, muscles of iron and a heart of flint ; taught 
him to drive the sword through plaited mail and links of 
rugged brass, and warm it in the marrow of his foe ; to gaze 
into the glaring eyeballs of the fierce Numidian lion, even as a 
boy upon a laughing girl ! And he shall pay thee back, until 
the yellow Tiber is red as frothing wine, and in its deepest 
ooze thy life-blood lies curdled ! 

Ye stand here now like giants, as ye are ! The strength of 
brass is in your toughened sinews; but to-morrow some Roman 
Adonis, breathing sweet perfume from his curly locks, shall, 
with his lily fingers, pat your red brawn, and bet his sesterces 
upon your blood. Hark ! hear ye yon lion roaring in his den ? 
'Tis three days since he has tasted flesh ; but to-morrow he 
shall break his fast upon yours — and a dainty meal for him ye 
will be! If ye are beasts, then stand here like fat oxen, waiting 
for the butcher's knife ! If ye are men, follow me ! Strike down 
yon guard, gain the mountain passes, and there do bloody 



WARREN'S ADDRESS AT BUNKER HILL. 



311 



work, as did your sires at old Thermopylae ! Is Sparta dead ? 
Is the old Grecian spirit frozen in your veins, that you do 
crouch and cower like a belabored hound beneath his master's 
lash ? O comrades ! Warriors ! Thracians ! if we must fight, 
let us fight for ourselves ! If we must slaughter, let us slaughter 
our oppressors ! If we must die, let it be under the clear sky, 
by the bright waters, in noble, honorable battle ! 



WARREN'S ADDRESS AT BUNKER HILL. 



JOHN PIERPONT. 




■glilKTAND ! the ground's your own, my braves ! 



Will ye give it up to slaves ? 
Will ye look for greener graves ? 

Hope ye mercy still ? 
What's the mercy despots feel ? 
Hear it in the battle-peal ! 
Read it on yon bristling steel ! 

Ask it — ye who will. 

Fear ye foes who kill for hire ? 
Will ye to your homes retire ? 
Look behind you — they're afire ! 

And, before you, see 
Who have done it ! From the vale 
On they come ! — and will ye quail ? 
Leaden rain and iron hail 

Let their welcome be ! 



In the God of battles trust ! 
Die we may — and die we must ; 
But oh, where can dust to dust 

Be consigned so well, 
As where heaven its dews shall shed 
On the martyred patriot's bed, 
And the rocks shall raise their head, 

Of his deeds to tell. 



312 PA TRIO TISM. 

"A TIME TO PRAY AND A TIME TO FIGHT." 




V ETER John Gabriel Muhlenburg was born in 

the village of Trappe, Montgomery County, 

Pa., October ist, 1746. He was the son of 

Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlenburg, d. d., the 

founder of the Lutheran Church in America. 

His mother was the daughter of Rev. Conrad 

Weiser, a celebrated officer, Indian agent and 

*5" missionary. 

Young Muhlenburg was dedicated in infancy to the Church, 

and he was educated for the ministry partly in this country 

and partly in Europe. 

In order to take charge of a church to which he was called, 
in Virginia (this colony being then under Episcopal control), 
he went to London, in 1772, to receive ordination from an 
English bishop. 

On his return to America, he assumed ministerial duties at 
Woodstock, Va., where he soon became a leading spirit among 
those who opposed British oppression. In 1774 he was chair- 
man of the Committee of Safety in his county, and was also 
elected a member of the House of Burgesses. At the close 
of 1775 he was chosen colonel of a Virginia regiment, and 
gave up his pastoral charge. His farewell sermon was on the 
duties men owe to their country. He said that, in the lan- 
guage of Holy Writ, "there was a time for all things ; a time 
to preach and a time to pray, but those times had passed 
away;" and then, in a voice that roused the congregation, he 
said, " that there was a time to fight, and that time had now 
come!" 

Then, laying aside his sacerdotal gown, he stood before his 
flock in the full regimental dress of a Virginia colonel. 

He ordered the drums to be beaten at the church door for 
recruits, and almost his entire male audience capable of bear- 
ing arms joined his standard. Nearly three hundred men 



"A TIME TO PEA Y AND A TIME TO EIGHT:' 313 

enlisted under his banner that day. He was in the battle at 
Charleston, in 1776, and served with fidelity in the southern 
campaign that year. Congress promoted him to the rank of 
brigadier general, in February, 1776, and he was ordered to 
take charge of all the Continental troops of the Virginia line in 
that State. 

He joined the army under Washington at Middlebrook, in 
May following, and was with the chief in all his movements 
until 1779, including the battles of Brandy wine and German- 
town, the sufferings at Whitemarsh and Valley Forge, the 
conflict on the plains of Monmouth, and the capture of Stony 
Point. At the close of that year he was directed to take 
command of the troops in Virginia, where he was very active 
until the attack of Cornwallis at Yorktown. 

In that battle and victory General Washington participated. 
At the close of the war he was elevated to the rank of Major 
General. He removed to Philadelphia, and in various civil 
capacities served that city. He was a member of the First 
and Third Congresses, and in 1801, was elected to the United 
States Senate. 

His death occurred at his country seat, near Philadelphia, 
on the 1st of October (the anniversary of his birth), 1807, at 
the age of sixty-one years. 

His grave is in the burying ground of the Lutheran Church 
at Collegeville, where he was baptized, and the simple monu- 
ment bears this inscription : — 

"Sacred to the memory of General Peter Muhlenburg, born 
October 1st, 1746; died October 1st, 1807. He was brave in 
the field; faithful in the cabinet; honorable in all his trans- 
actions ; a sincere friend and an honest man." 

In such high esteem is his memory held in Pennsylvania 
that, when Congress authorized the placing of two statues of 
illustrious men from each of the original thirteen colonies, in 
the Capitol at Washington, this Commonwealth immediately 
selected General Muhlenburg to be one of the representatives. 
— Life of Muhlenburg. 



314 PA TRIO TISM. 

ROLLA'S ADDRESS TO THE PERUVIANS. 



R. B. SHERIDAN. 




|Y brave associates, partners of my toil, my 
feelings, and my fame ! Can Rolla's words 
add vigor to the virtuous energies which 
inspire your hearts? No ; you have judged, 
as I have, the foulness of the crafty plea by 
which these bold invaders would delude 
you. Your generous spirit has compared, 
as mine has, the motives which, in a war 
like this, can animate their minds and ours. 

They, by a strange frenzy driven, fight for power, for plunder, 
and extended rule ; we, for our country, our altars, and our 
homes. They follow an adventurer whom they fear, and obey 
a power which they hate ; we serve a monarch whom we love, 
a God whom we adore. Whene'er they move in anger, deso- 
lation tracks their progress ! whene'er they pause in amity, 
affliction mourns their friendship. 

They boast they come but to improve our State, enlarge our 
thoughts, and free us from the yoke of error ! Yes, they will 
give enlightened freedom to our minds, who are themselves 
the slaves of passion, avarice and pride. They offer us their 
protection. Yes, such protection as vultures give to lambs — 
covering and devouring them. 

They call on us to barter all of good we have inherited and 
proved, for the desperate chance of something better, which 
they promise. Be our plain answer this : The throne we 
honor is the people's choice ; the laws we reverence are our 
brave fathers' legacy ; the faith we follow teaches us to live in 
bonds of charity with all mankind, and die with hope of bliss 
beyond the grave. Tell your invaders this, and tell them, too, 
we seek no change ; and least of all, such change as they 
would bring us. 



PA UL RE VERE 'S RIDE. 
PAUL REVERE'S RIDE. 



H. W. LONGFELLOW. 



315 



ISTEN, my children, and you shall hear 

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, 
| On the eighteenth of April in Seventy-Five : ' 
» Hardly a man is now alive 
/ Who remembers that famous day and year. 

He said to his friend — " If the British march 
By land or sea from the town to-night, 
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry-arch 
Of the North-Church tower, as a signal-light— 
One if by land, and two if by sea ; 
And I on the opposite shore will be, 
) Ready to ride and spread the alarm 

Through every Middlesex village and farm, 
For the country-folk to be up and to arm." 

Then he said good-night, and with muffled oar 

Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore, 

Just as the moon rose over the bay, 

Where swinging wide at her moorings lay 

The Somerset, British man-of-war : 

A phantom ship, with each mast and spar 

Across the moon, like a prison-bar, 

And a huge, black hulk, that was magnified 

By its own reflection in the tide. 

Meanwhile, his friend, through alley and street 
Wanders and watches with eager ears, 
Till in the silence around him he hears 
The muster of men at the barrack-door, 
The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet, 
And the measured tread of the grenadiers 
Marching down to their boats on shore. 

Then he climbed to the tower of the church, 
Up the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread, 
To the belfry-chamber overhead, 
And startled the pigeons from their perch 



316 PA TRIO TISM. 

On the sombre rafters, that round him made 
Masses and moving shapes of shade — 
Up the light ladder, slender and tall, 
To the highest window in the wall, 
Where he paused to listen and look down 
A moment on the roofs of the quiet town, 
And the moonlight flowing over all. 

Beneath, in the church-yard, lay the dead 
In their night encampment on the hill, 
Wrapped in silence so deep and still, 
That he could hear, like a sentinel's tread, 
The watchful night wind, as it went 
Creeping along from tent to tent, 
And seeming to whisper, " All is well ! " 
A moment only he feels the spell 
Of the place and the hour, the secret dread 
Of the lonely belfry and the dead ; 
For suddenly all his thoughts are bent 
On a shadowy something far away, 
Where the river widens to meet the bay — 
A line of black, that bends and floats 
On the rising tide, like a bridge of boats. 

Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride, 

Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride, 

On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere. 

Now he patted his horse's side, 

Now gazed on the landscape far and near — 

A hurry of hoofs in a village street, 

A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark, 

And beneath from the pebbles, in passing, a spark 

Struck out by a steed that flies fearless and fleet : 

That was all ! And yet, through the gloom and the light, 

The fate of a nation was riding that night ; 

And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight, 

Kindling the land into flame with its heat. 

It was twelve by the village clock, 

When he crossed the bridge into Medford town ; 

He heard the crowing of the cock, 

And the barking of the farmer's dog, 

And felt the damp of the river fog, 

That rises when the sun goes down. 



PA UL RE FERE ' S RIDE. 317 

It was one by the village clock, 

When he rode into Lexington. 

He saw the gilded weathercock 

Swim in the moonlight as he passed, 

And the meeting-house windows, blank and bare, 

Gaze at him with a spectral glare, 

As if they already stood aghast 

At the bloody work they would look upon. 



It was two by the village clock 
When he came to the bridge in Concord town. 
He heard the bleating of the flock, 
And the twitter of birds among the trees, 
And felt the breath of the morning breeze 
Blowing over the meadows brown. 
And one was safe and asleep in his bed 
Who at the bridge would be first to fall, 
Who that day would be lying dead, 
Pierced by a British musket-ball. 

You know the rest. In the books you have read 
How the British regulars fired and fled — 
How the farmers gave them ball for ball, 
From behind each fence and farmyard-wall, 
Chasing the red-coats down the lane, 
Then crossing the fields to emerge again 
Under the trees at the turn of the road, 
And only pausing to fire and load. 



So through the night rode Paul Revere ; 

And so through the night went his cry of alarm 

To every Middlesex village and farm ; 

A cry of defiance and not of fear ; 

A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door, 

And a word that shall echo forevermore ! 

For, borne on the night-wind of the Past, 

Through all our history, to the last, 

In the hour of darkness and peril and need, 

The people will waken and listen to hear 

The hurrying hoof-beat of that steed, 

And the midnight message of Paul Revere. 



318 PA TRIO TISM. 

TELESILE, THE HEROINE OF NANCY. 




N the year 1476, Charles the Bold, Duke 
of Burgundy, laid siege to the town of 
Nancy, capital of the Duchy of Lorraine. 
In the absence of the young Duke, Rene 
II, who had gone to raise troops among the 
enemies of Charles, the town and its little 
garrison were left in charge of a brave and 
patriotic Governor, who had an only daughter 
named Telesile. It is with the noble con- 
duct of this heroic young girl that our story has chiefly 
to do. 

Charles the Bold, who ought rather to have been called the 
Rash, or the Furious, from his headlong and violent disposi- 
tion, had sought to erect a kingdom within the dominions of 
his great rival, Louis XI, of France. To extend his power, he 
had overrun provinces which, as soon as his strong hand was 
withdrawn, took the first opportunity to revolt against him. 
Lorraine was one of these ; and he now appeared before the 
walls of Nancy, resolved to punish its inhabitants, whom he 
regarded as rebels. 

But, thanks to the Governor and his heroic daughter, the 
city held out bravely, both against the assaults of his soldiers 
and the threats and promises with which he tried to induce a 
surrender. While the Governor directed and encouraged the 
defenders, Telesile inspired their wives and daughters. 

" Let us do," she cried, " as did the women of Beauvais, 
when this same cruel Charles laid siege to their town. Mothers 
armed themselves ; young girls seized whatever weapons they 
could find — hatchets, broken lances — which they bound to- 
gether with their hair, and they joined their sons and brothers 
in the fight. They drove the invader from their walls ; and so 
we will defeat and drive him back !" 

" Put no trust in the tyrant !" said the intrepid Governor, 



telesile, the heroine of nancy. 319 

addressing the people. " He is as faithless as he is cruel. He 
has promised to spare our lives and our property if we will 
accept him as our ruler; but be not deceived. Once within 
our walls, he will give up to massacre and pillage the city that 
has cost him so dear. 

" But if not for your own sakes," he went on, " then for the 
love of your rightful lord, Duke Rene, let us continue the 
glorious struggle. Already, at the head of a brave Swiss 
army, he is hastening to our relief. He will soon be at our 
gates. Let us hold out till then ; or, sooner than betray our 
trust, let us fall with our defences and be buried in the ruins 
of our beloved city '" 

Thus defended, Nancy held out until Charles, maddened 
to a fury by so unexpected and so prolonged a resistance, 
made a final desperate attempt to carry the town. By 
stratagem, quite as much as by force, he succeeded in gain- 
ing an entrance within the walls, and Nancy was at his 
mercy. 

In the flush of vengeance and success, he was for putting at 
once all the inhabitants — men, women and children — to the 
sword. A young maiden was brought before him. 

" Barbarian !" she cried, " if we are all to perish, over whom 
are you going to reign ?" 

" Who are you, bold girl, that dare to speak to me thus ?" 
said the astonished Charles. 

"Your prisoner, and one who would prevent you from 
adding to the list of your cruelties !" 

Her beauty, her courage, and the prophetic tones in which 
she spoke, arrested Charles' fury. 

" Give up to me your Governor, whom I have sworn to 
punish," he said, " and a portion of the inhabitants shall be 
spared." But the Governor was her own father — for the young 
girl was no other than Telesile. Listening to the entreaties 
of his friends, he assumed the dress of a private citizen ; and 
all loved the good old man too well to point him out to the 
tyrant. 



320 PA TRIO TISM. 

When Telesile sorrowfully reported to her father, the Duke's 
words, he smiled. " Be of good cheer, my daughter ! " he 
said, " I will see the Duke Charles, and try what I can do to 
persuade him." When brought before the conqueror, he said, 
" There is but one man who can bring the Governor to you. 
Swear on your sword to spare all the inhabitants of the town, 
and he shall be given up." 

" That will I not ! " cried the angry Duke. " They have 
braved my power too long ; they have scorned my offers ; 
they have laughed at my threats ; now woe to the people of 
Nancy ! " Then turning to his officers, he commanded that 
every tenth person should be slain, and they at once gave 
orders for the decimation. 

The inhabitants, young and old, women and infants, were 
assembled in a line which extended through the principal streets 
of the city; while the soldiers ransacked the houses, in order 
to drive forth or kill any that might remain concealed. It was 
a terrible day for the doomed city. Families clung together, 
friends embraced friends, some weeping and lamenting, some 
trying to comfort and sustain those who were weaker than 
they, others calmly waiting their fate. 

Then, at a word from the conqueror, a herald went forth, 
and waving his hand before the gathered multitude, began to 
count. Each one on whom fell the fatal number ten was to be 
given at once to the sword. But at the outset a difficulty 
arose. 

Near the head of the line Telesile and the Governor were 
placed ; and the devoted girl, watching the movements of the 
herald, and hearing him count aloud, saw by a rapid glance 
that the dreaded number was about to fall on her father. 
Quick as thought she slipped behind him and placed herself 
at his other side. Before the old man was aware of her object, 
the doom which should have been his had fallen upon his 
daughter. He stood for a moment stupefied with astonish- 
ment and grief, then called out to the herald, " Justice ! 
justice ! " 



telesile, the heroine of nancy 321 

" What is the matter, old man ? " demanded the herald, 
before passing on. 

"The count is wrong! there is a mistake! Not her!" 
exclaimed the father, as the executioners were laying hands 
upon Telesile, " take me, for I was the tenth ! " 

" Not so," said Telesile calmly, " You all saw that the 
number came to me." 

" She put herself in my way — she took my place — on 
me ! let the blow fall on me ! " pleaded the old man ; while 
she as earnestly insisted that she was the rightly chosen 
victim. 

Amazed to see two persons striving for the privilege 
of death at their hands, the butchers dragged them before 
Charles the Bold, that he might decide the question between 
them. 

Charles was no less surprised on beholding once more 
the maiden and the old man who had already appeared 
before him, and at learning the cause of their strange 
dispute; for he knew not yet that they were parent and 
child. 

Notwithstanding his violent disposition, the conqueror had 
a heart which pity could sometimes touch, and he was power- 
fully moved by the sight that met his eyes. 

" I pray you hear me ! " cried Telesile, throwing herself at 
his feet ; " I am a simple maiden ; my life is of no account ; 
then let me die, my lord Duke ! but spare, Oh, spare him, the 
best and noblest of men, whose life is useful to all our unhappy 
people ! " 

"Do not listen to her ! " exclaimed the old man, almost too 
much affected to speak ; " or, if you do, let her own words 
confute her argument. You behold her courage, her piety, 
her self-sacrifice ; and I see you are touched ! You will not, 
you cannot destroy so precious a life ! It is I who am now 
worthless to my people. My days are almost spent. Even if 
you spare me, I have but a little while to live." 

Then Telesile, perceiving the eyes of Charles bent upon 
21 



322 PA TRIO TISM. 

her with a look of mingled admiration and pity, said, 
" Do you think there is anything wonderful in my con- 
duct ? I do but my simple duty ; I plead for my father's 
life ! " 

" Yes, I am her father," said the old man, moved by a sud- 
den determination ; " I am something more. My lord Duke, 
behold the man on whom you have sworn to have revenge. 
I am he who defended the city so long against you. Now, 
let me die ! " 

At this a multitude of people broke from the line in which 
they had been ranged, and, surrounding the Governor and 
his daughter, made a rampart of their bodies about them, 
exclaiming, " Let us die for him ! We will die for our good 
Governor! " 

All the better part of the rude Charles' nature was roused. 
Tears were in his own eyes ; his voice was shaken by emotion. 
" Neither shall die ! " he cried. " Old man ! fair maiden ! 
I spare your lives ; and, for your sake, the lives of all 
these people. Nay, do not thank me ; for I have gained 
in this interview a knowledge which I could never have 
acquired through years of conquest — that human love is 
greater than kingly power, and that mercy is sweeter than 
vengeance ! " 

Well would it have been for the rash Charles could he have 
gained that knowledge earlier, or have shaped his future life 
by it, even then. Still fired by ambition and the love of power, 
he went forth to fight Duke Rene, who now appeared with an 
army to relieve his fair city of Nancy. A battle ensued, in 
which Charles was defeated and slain; and, in the midst of joy 
and thanksgiving, the rightful Duke entered and once more 
took possession of the town. 

Warmly as he was welcomed, there were two who shared 
with him the honors of that happy day — the old man who 
had defended Nancy so long and well, and the young girl 
whose heroic conduct had saved from massacre one-tenth of 
all its inhabitants. — Selected. 



REGULUS TO THE ROMAN SENATE. 



323 



REGULUS TO THE ROMAN SENATE. 




^ifef^RGE me no more — your prayers are vain, 
And even the tears ye shed ; 
When Regulus can lead again 
The bands that once he led; 
When he can raise your legions, slain 
On swarthy Lybia's fatal plain 

To vengeance from the dead ; 
Then will he seek once more a home, 
And lift a freeman's voice in Rome ! 



Accursed moment ! when I woke 
From faintness all but death, 

And felt the coward conqueror's voke 
Like venomed serpents wreathe 

Round every limb ! If lip and eye 

Betrayed no sign of agony, 
Inly I cursed my breath ! 

Wherefore, of all that fought, was I 

The only wretch who could not die ? 



To darkness and to chains consigned, 
The captive's blighting doom, 

I recked not ; could they chain the mind, 
Or plunge the soul in .gloom ? 

And there they left me, dark and lone, 

Till darkness had familiar grown ; 
Then from that living tomb 

They led me forth — I thought to die ; 

Oh ! in that thought was ecstasy. 



But no — kind Heaven had yet in store 

For me, a conquered slave, 
A joy I thought to feel no more, 

Or feel but in the grave. 
They deemed perchance my haughtier mood 
Was quelled by chains and solitude ; 

That he who once was brave — 
Was I not brave ? — had now become 
Estranged from honor, as from Rome 



324 PA TRIO TISM. 

They bade me to my country bear 
The offers these have borne ; 

They would have trained my lips to sweor, 
Which never yet have sworn ! 

Silent their base commands I heard ; 

At length, I pledged a Roman's word, 
Unshrinking, to return. 

I go, prepared to meet the worst, 

But I shall gall proud Carthage first ! 

They sue for peace — I bid you spurn 

The gilded bait they bear ! 
I bid you still, with aspect stern, 

War, ceaseless war, declare ! 
Fools that they were, could not mine eye, 
Through their dissembled calmness, spy 

The struggle of despair ? 
Else had they sent this wasted frame 
To bribe you to your country's shame ? 

Your land — I must not call it mine — 

No country has the slave ; 
His father's name he must resign, 

And e'en his father's grave ; 
But this not now — beneath her lies 
Proud Carthage and her destinies ; 

Her empire o'er the wave 
Is yours ; she knows it well — and you 
Shall know, and make her feel it, too ! 

Ay, bend your brows, ye ministers 

Of coward hearts, on me ! 
Ye know, no longer it is hers, 

The empire of the sea ; 
Ye know her fleets are far and few, 
Her bands a mercenary crew ; 

And Rome, the bold and free, 
Shall trample on her prostrate towers, 
Despite your weak and wasted powers. 

One path alone remains for me ; 

My vows were heard on high. 
Thy triumph, Rome, / shall not see, 

For I return to die. 



THE YOUNG TYROLESE. 325 

Then tell ?ne not of hope or life ; 

I have in Rome no chaste, fond wife, 

No smiling progeny. 
One word concentres, for the slave, 
Wife, children, country, all — The Grave. 

Rev. T. Dale. 



THE YOUNG TYROLESE. 



MISS AGNES STRICKLAND. 




MONG the gallant band of patriots that rallied so 
bravely around the standard of Andrew Hofer, 
there was not a more devoted champion of free- 
dom than Gustavus Rosen. Placed by birth and 
fortune beyond the cares incidental to poverty, 
and blessed in the society of a beloved wife and 
two amiable children, Rosen had passed the 
meridian of his days in tranquil happiness; mis- 
fortune had been a stranger to his dwelling, till the invasion 
of the French army poured the red tide of war, with remorse- 
less fury, into the once peaceful valleys of the Tyrol. All that 
was dear and lovely lay crushed beneath the steps of the con- 
queror ; the voice of woe and wailing was heard throughout 
the land; mothers mourned for their children, children for 
their parents. 

The sound of busy, cheerful labor ceased on the plain. The 
joyous voice of childhood was hushed. The note of the shep- 
herd's pipe was heard no more, as he led his fleecy care from the 
fold. The chime of Sabbath bells no longer swelled with hal- 
lowed melody upon the breeze, summoning the inhabitants of 
the land to meet in the house of prayer, to mingle in one gen- 
eral chorus of praise and grateful thanksgiving to Him from 
whose hand all blessings flow. 

Those bells were now only heard pealing forth the alarm 
that woke terror and dismay in the hearts of the feeble and 



326 PA TRIO TISM. 

the helpless, mingling, in jangling and discordant sounds, with 
the rolling of drums, the shrill blast of the bugle or loud 
trumpet, and the deep roar of the artillery. The tumult of 
war had hushed all other sounds. Panic-stricken, the Tyrolese 
at first made no effectual effort to resist the invading army ; 
they looked to Austria for succor; but she was unable to afford 
them any assistance, and the hapless Tyrol fell a victim to the 
policy of its princes. 

In the hour of terror and dismay, when all had forsaken 
her, Hofer, the village innkeeper, alone stood forward as the 
champion of his country. Fired with patriotic zeal, he planted 
the standard of freedom once more on his native mountains, 
exhorting his countrymen to rally around it in defence of their 
country's rights. The fire of patriotism was kindled, and like 
an electric shock it flew from man to man. The thrilling cry 
of, " Hofer and liberty ! " was repeated by every tongue. " We 
will conquer, or die in the cause of freedom ! " and a thousand 
answering echoes from the hills returned, " We will die ! " 
Even women and children seemed inspired with the same 
patriotic zeal, and vowed to die in defence of their country. 
Mothers were seen leading their sons, yet striplings in years, 
to the camp, and with their own hands arming them in the 
cause of liberty. " It is better to die than live the slaves of 
France ! " they said. 

The standard of the Tyrolese army was committed, by 
Hofer's own hand, to the care of the young son of Gustavus 
Rosen, a gallant boy of sixteen, with a solemn charge to de- 
fend it with his life. " I will defend it," replied the youth, as 
he unfolded it to the breeze, " and where this banner falls, there 
shall the son of Gustavus Rosen be found beside it. Death 
only shall part us." 

Three times did the brave Tyrolese, led on by Hofer, beat 
back the invader to the frontier, and victory seemed to crown 
them with success ; but the crafty Bavarian now poured his 
thousands into the Tyrol, overpowering, by the force of num- 
bers, the brave men who were left to defend their country, and 



THE YOUNG TYROLESE. 327 

effecting that which the armies of France had been unable to 
do alone. At this juncture Austria made peace with France, 
and the Tyrol was ceded to Bonaparte, who demanded it 
as one of the conditions of the treaty. Unable to defend 
the province, the emperor yielded up the Tyrol without 
reserve. 

Hopeless, dejected, and overpowered by numbers, the unfor- 
tunate Tyrolese were obliged to relinquish the unequal strife ; 
burning with indignation, they withdrew among the inacces- 
sible glens and fastnesses of their native mountains, resolving 
to perish rather than yield to the usurper's power. The 
bravest and best of that devoted band had fallen, or were 
carried captives across the Alps. 

"Scattered and sunk, the mountain band 
Fling the loved rifle from their hand ; 
The soul of fight is done." 

During the heat of the war Gustavus Rosen had conveyed 
his wife and his infant daughter to a safe retreat among the 
mountains, where, under the care of an old and faithful friend, 
who for many years had followed the adventurous life of an 
Alpine hunter, he knew they would be safe from the horrors 
of the war which spared not, in its fury, either the infant or the 
gray-haired sire. " Here, my beloved Gertrude," he said, 
addressing his weeping partner, " you and our Theresa will 
find safety and repose ; and although Albrecht's cot be rude 
and homely, it is better far than our camps and leagured 
walls." 

"There is no safety where you are not," exclaimed the 
wife of Rosen, throwing herself into his arms ; " if there be 
safety in this wild retreat, stay and share it with us." The eye 
of the patriot soldier flashed fire ; he turned and pointed sternly 
to the wreaths of dim smoke that rolled in heavy volumes 
across the distant plains. " A thousand helpless mothers, with 
their orphan children, cry for vengeance against the spoiler on 



328 PATRIOTISM. 

yonder plain ; and shall their appeal be unheard ? " he cried 
vehemently, grasping his sword. " See, Gertrude ! even now 
heaven blushes with the fiery glare of yon flaming hamlet ; 
and shall I slumber here in inglorious ease, while my country 
demands my aid ? " 

Then softening the impetuosity of his manner, he strove to 
soothe his weeping spouse ; the patriot's sternness yielded to the 
tenderness of the husband and father, and he fondly folded the 
beloved objects of his solicitude to his heart. Suddenly a rifle 
was fired. " Hark ! 'tis the signal-gun," he cried! " Gertrude, 
that shot was fired by our gallant boy." " My child ! my 
Heinrich ! " exclaimed the distracted mother, " Stay, my 
husband ! " But before the sound of that rifle had ceased to 
reverberate among the rocks, Rosen was gone ; with desperate 
haste he pursued his perilous way, leaping from crag to crag, 
now trusting his weight to the weak sapling that overhung 
his path, or stemming, with nervous arm, the force of the 
mountain torrent that would have barred his path. 

Old Albrecht watched his fearful progress with silent awe, 
then turned to soothe the grief of the disconsolate Gertrude 
and her daughter, cheering them with the hope that 
Rosen would soon return, at the same time bidding them wel- 
come to his lowly roof and mountain fare. " You will be as 
safe, dear lady," he said, " as the eagle in his eyrie on the rocks 
above you." 

The first intelligence that reached the wife of Rosen was, 
that her husband had fallen in a desperate skirmish with the 
French. It was the last effort made by the brave Tyrolese in 
defence of their country. 

The brave Heinrich, too, was no more ; he was found 
stretched on the bank of a little stream at the gorge of the 
valley, wrapped in the banner which he had sworn to defend 
with his last drop of blood. He had faithfully fulfilled his 
word, and the standard of freedom became the winding sheet 
of the young hero. 



THE IMPRESSMENT OF AMERICANS— 18 is. 329 

THE IMPRESSMENT OF AMERICANS— 1812. 



RICHARD RUSH. 




HE impressment of our seamen by Great 
Britain is an outrage to which we never can 
submit without national ignominy and de- 
basement. This crime of impressment may 
justly be considered — posterity will so con- 
sider it — as transcending the amount of all 
other wrongs we have received. Ships and 
merchandise belong to individuals, and may 
be valued ; may be embargoed as subjects of negotiation. But 
men are the property of the nation. In every American face 
a part of our country's sovereignty is written. It is the living 
emblem — a thousand times more sacred than the nation's flag 
itself — of its character, its independence and its rights. 

" But," say the British, " we want not your men ; we want 
only our own. Prove that they are yours, and we will sur- 
render them." Baser outrage ! Most insolent indignity ! That 
a free-born American must be made to prove his nativity to 
those who have previously violated his liberty, else he is to be 
held forever as a slave! That before a British tribunal — a 
British boarding officer — a free-born American must be made 
to seal up the vouchers of his lineage— to exhibit the records 
of his baptism and birth ; to establish the identity that binds 
him to his parents, to his blood, to his native land, by setting 
forth in odious detail his size, his age, the shape of his frame, 
whether his hair is long or cropped — his marks — like an ox or 
a horse of the manger; that all this must be done, as the con- 
dition of his escape from the galling thraldom of a British 
ship ! Can we hear it, can we think of it, with any other than 
indignant feelings at our tarnished name and nation ? 

When this same insatiate foe, in the days of the Revolution, 
landed with seventeen thousand hostile troops on our shores, 



330 



PATRIOTISM. 



the Congress of 1876 declared our independence, and hurled 
defiance at the martial array of England ! And shall we now 
hesitate ? Shall we bow our necks in submission ? Shall we 
make an ignominious surrender of our birthright, under the 
plea that we are not prepared to defend it ? No, Americans ! 
Yours has been a pacific republic, and therefore has not ex- 
hibited military preparations; but it is a free republic, and 
therefore will it now, as before, soon command battalions, dis- 
cipline, courage! Could a general of old, by only stamping 
on the earth, raise up armies ; and shall a whole nation of free 
men, at such a time, know not where to look for them ? The 
soldiers of Bunker Hill, the soldiers of Bennington, the soldiers 
of the Wabash, the seamen of Tripoli, forbid it ! 



GIVE ME LIBERTY, OR GIVE ME DEATH !" 



PATRICK HENRY. 




; ATRICK Henry was born at the family seat of 
his father, called Studley, in Hanover county, 
Virginia, on the 29th of May, 1736. His 
early years gave but little promise of his 
future greatness. At the age of ten he was 
taken from school and placed under a private 
tutor, to study Latin, but it soon turned out 
that he was more fond of hunting, fishing, and 
idling away his time, than of study. He failed in mercantile 
pursuits, from lack of tact and energy. At eighteen he was 
married, but he did but little to support his wife until after his 
twenty-fourth year. As a last resort, he studied law. He 
applied himself diligently for six weeks, when he obtained a 
license as an attorney, but it was not until he was employed in 
the celebrated " Parsons Case " that he showed any signs of 
even ordinary ability. William Wirt says, " in his plea in this 



"GIVE ME LIBERTY, OR GIVE ME DEATH." 331 

case, his wonderful oratory beamed out for the first time in 
great splendor." From this time to the day of his death he 
was a marked man in the Colonies. The title of the "American 
Demosthenes " was not undeserved, when we take into con- 
sideration his signal success in rousing the people of his native 
State and country to take up arms against their oppressors. 
He served his country faithfully in her darkest hours. He 
died, universally regretted, in the year 1799. The following 
speech was delivered in the Virginia House of Burgesses, on 
the 23d of March, in the year 1775 : — 

" Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed by a kiss. Ask your- 
selves how this gracious reception comports with those warlike 
preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are 
fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconcilia- 
tion ? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled 
that force must be called in to win us back to our love ? Let 
us not deceive ourselves ! 

"These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last 
arguments to which kings resort. I ask, gentlemen, what 
means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to 
submission ? Has Great Britain any enemy in this quarter of 
the world, to call for all this accumulation of armies and 
navies ? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us ; they 
can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and 
rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have 
been so long forging. And what have we to oppose them ? 
Shall we try argument ? Sir, we have been trying argument 
for the last ten years. We have petitioned ; we have suppli- 
cated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and 
have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands 
of the ministers and Parliament. Our petitions have been 
slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence 
and insult ; our supplications have been disregarded ; and we 
have been spurned with contempt from the foot of the throne. 
In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of 
reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. 



332 PATRIOTISM. 

" If we wish to be free ; if we wish to preserve inviolate those 
inestimable privileges for which we have been so long con- 
tending ; if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle 
in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have 
pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object 
of our contest shall be obtained, we must fight ! I repeat it, sir, 
we must fight ! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is 
all that is left us. 

" They tell us, sir, that we are weak — unable to cope with so 
formidable an enemy. But when shall we be stronger ? Will 
it be next week, or next year? Will it be when we are totally 
disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every 
house ? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction ? 
Shall we acquire the means of efficient resistance by lying 
supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of 
hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand foot ? Sir, 
we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those means which 
the God of Nature hath placed in our power. Three millions 
of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty — and in such a 
country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force 
which our enemy can send against us. 

" Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is 
a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who 
will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, 
sir, is not to the strong alone ; it is to the vigilant, the active, 
the brave. 

"And again, we have no election. If we were base enough 
to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There 
is no retreat but in submission and slavery ! Our chains are 
forged ! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston ! 
The war is inevitable ! And let it come ! I repeat it, sir, let 
it come ! ! ! It is vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen 
may cry peace, peace ; but there is no peace. The war is 
actually begun. The next gale that sweeps from the north 
will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms ! Our 
brethren are already in the field ! What is it that gentlemen 



A NOBLE QUEEN. 



333 



wish ? What would they have ? Is life so dear or peace 
so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and 
slavery ? 

" Forbid it, Almighty God ! I know not what course others 
may take, but as for me, Give me Liberty, or give me 
death." 



A NOBLE QUEEN. 



FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS. 




HILE the whole nation of the Jews were in 
captivity, far from their native country, the 
wife of the sovereign had offended him by 
refusing to appear before strangers at a 
feast, when he ' demanded her presence ; 
and the king having once divorced her, 
could not recall, though desirous of so 
doing. He was counselled to assemble 
the most beautiful women throughout his dominions, out of 
which he might choose his future queen. He accordingly did 
so, and fixed on Esther, an orphan, of the tribe of Benjamin, 
who was brought up by an uncle, one of the principal men 
among the Jews. She was exceedingly beautiful, and mes- 
sengers were dispatched into every nation in that wide mon- 
archy, to order a general rejoicing, while the king feasted the 
chief persons of the Medes and Persians a whole month, on 
account of his marriage. 

Esther was brought to the royal palace, and a diadem placed 
upon her head, without the king's knowing what country she 
was of. Her uncle, Mordecai, with whom she had been brought 
up, removed from Babylon to Shushan, being every day about 
the palace, that he might behold his niece, whom he loved as 
a daughter. 



334 PA TRIO TISM. 

An Amalekite, who, from his station, was enemy to the Jews, 
and bore hatred to Mordecai, was in great favor with the king; 
and by slandering that people as vile and seditious, persuaded 
him that it would be an act of policy to extirpate them, and in 
the end be beneficial to the State. 

Accordingly, a decree was given, and a day fixed for this 
purpose. Mordecai sent a copy of the proclamation to Esther, 
and besought her to petition the king. She sent him word 
that, unless her presence was demanded, it was death to pre- 
sent herself before him, guards always standing on each side 
of the throne, with axes, to cut down such intruders ; but de- 
sired him to gather all the Jews at Shushan together, and to 
fast with them ; she and her maidens would do the same ; and 
thus she would go to the king. She, accordingly, put on 
mourning garments, cast herself upon the earth, prayed and 
fasted three days, at the end of which she changed her habit, 
attired herself in rich robes, and, attended by two maids, who 
held her train, went, with fear and confusion, into the presence 
of the king. 

But, on his looking on her with some sternness and surprise, 
she fainted ; on which he leaped from the throne and took her 
in his arms, bidding her be of good cheer, as that law was 
made only for subjects, and not for a queen. But her spirits 
were too much depressed to allow her to enter on the subject 
she intended ; and though he assured her he would grant her re- 
quest, to the half of his kingdom, she delayed declaring herself, 
and only asked him, together with Haman, the Amalekite, to 
a banquet the next day. Even then she put it off, asked them 
a second time, and then, when the king wished her to name 
the request, she told him of the plot to destroy herself and her 
nation, and named Haman as the author of it. The king was, 
at first, in some disorder, on hearing his favorite accused ; but, 
persuaded of his vileness, he commanded him to be hung upon 
a gallows he had that day erected for Mordecai ; and, as he 
could not revoke a decree, which, having once passed, the laws 
of Persia rendered irrevocable, he passed another, to encourage 




QUEEN ESTHER. 



VERRES DENOUNCED. 335 

the Jews to defend themselves and slay their enemies, of which 
75,800, chiefly Amalekites, perished that day; which was 
commemorated among the Jews by an annual feast, called 
Purim. Mordecai became a considerable person at court, and 
the influence of Esther considerably bettered the state of the 
Jews. 

VERRES DENOUNCED. 



CICERO. 




N opinion has long prevailed, Fathers, that, in 
public prosecutions, men of wealth, however 
clearly convicted, are always safe. This opinion, 
so injurious to your order, so detrimental to the 
State, it is now in your power to refute. A 
man is on trial before you who is rich, and who 
hopes his riches will compass his acquittal ; but 
whose life and actions are his sufficient condem- 
nation in the eyes of all candid men. I speak of Caius Verres, 
who, if he now receive not the sentence his crimes deserve, it 
shall not be through the lack of a criminal, or a prosecutor ; 
but through the failure of the ministers of justice to do their 
duty. Passing over the shameful irregularities of his youth, 
what does the prsetorship of Verres exhibit, but one continued 
scene of villainies ? The public treasure squandered, a Consul 
stripped and betrayed, an army deserted and reduced to want, 
a province robbed, the civil and religious rights of a people 
trampled on ! But his praetorship in Sicily has crowned his 
career of wickedness, and completed the lasting monument of 
his infamy. His decisions have violated all law, all precedent, 
all right. His extortions from the industrious poor have been 
beyond computation. Our most faithful allies have been 
treated as enemies. Roman citizens have, like slaves, been 



336 PA TRIO TISM. 

put to death with tortures. Men the most worthy have been 
condemned and banished without a hearing, while the most 
atrocious criminals have, with money, purchased exemption 
from the punishment due to their guilt. 

I ask now, Verres, what have you to advance against these 
charges ? Art thou not the tyrant praetor, who, at no greater 
distance than Sicily, within sight of the Italian coast, dared to 
put to an infamous death, on the cross, that ill-fated and 
innocent citizen, Publius Gavius Cosanus ! And what was his 
offience ? He had declared his intention of appealing to the 
justice of his country against your brutal prosecutions ! For 
this, when about to embark for home, he was seized, brought 
before you, charged with being a spy, scourged and tortured. 
In vain did he exclaim, " I am a Roman citizen ! I have 
served under Lucius Pretius, who is now at Panormus, and 
who will attest my innocence ! " Deaf to all remonstrance, 
remorseless, thirsting for innocent blood, you ordered the 
savage punishment to be inflicted ! While the sacred words, 
" I am a Roman citizen," were on his lips — words which, in 
the remotest regions, are a passport to protection — you ordered 
him to death, to a death upon the cross. 

O liberty ! O sound once delightful to every Roman ear ! 
O sacred privilege of Roman citizenship ! once sacred, now 
trampled on. Is it come to this ? Shall an inferior magistrate, 
a governor, who holds his whole power of the Roman people, 
in a Roman province, within sight of Italy, bind, scourge, 
torture, and put to an infamous death, a Roman citizen? Shall 
neither the cries of innocence expiring in agony, the tears of 
pitying spectators, the majesty of the Roman Commonwealth, 
nor the fear of the justice of his country, restrain the merciless 
monster, who, in the confidence of his riches, strikes at the 
very root of liberty, and sets mankind at defiance ? And shall 
this man escape ? Fathers, it must not be ! It must not be, 
unless you would undermine the very foundations of social 
safety, strangle justice, and call down anarchy, massacre and 
ruin on the Commonwealth. 



HERVE RIEL. 
HERVE RIEL. 



337 



ROBERT BROWNING. 

\r 0§^^ t ^ e sea an( ^ at t ^ ie Hogue, sixteen hundred ninety-two, 
^p||lyj| Did the English fleet fight the French — woe to France ! 
^ ^sa^P And the thirty-first of May, helter skelter through the blue, 
x ^ ^ Like a crowd of frightened porpoises a shoal of sharks 
pursue, 
Came crowding, ship on ship, to St.Malo on the Ranee, 
With the English fleet in view. 



'Twas the squadron that escaped, with the victor in full 

chase, 
First and foremost of the drove, in his great ship, Dam- 
freville ; 
Close on him fled, great and small, 
Twenty-two good ships in all ; 
And they signalled to the place, 
" Help the winners of the race ! 
Get us guidance, give us harbor, take us quick — or quicker 

still, 
Here's the British can and will !" 



Then the pilots of the place put out brisk and leaped on 
board — 
t "Why, what hope or chance have ships like these to pass ?" 

1 laughed they ; 

" Rocks to starboard, rocks to port, all the passage scarred 
and scored, 
t Shall the ' Formidable' here, with her twelve and eighty 

if. . ^ns, 

A Think to make the river mouth by the single narrow way, 
Trust to enter where 'tis ticklish for a craft of twenty tons, 
And with flow at fall beside ? 
Now 'tis slackest ebb of tide. 
Reach the mooring ! Rather say, 
While rock stands or water runs, 
Not a ship will leave the bay !" 
22 



338 pa trio tism. 

Then was called a council straight ; 
Brief and bitter the debate ; 
" Here's the English at our heels ; would you have them take in tow 
All that's left us of the fleet, linked together stern and bow, 
For a prize to Plymouth Sound ? 
Better run the ships aground !" 
(Ended Damfreville his speech.) 

Not a minute more to wait ! 
Let the captains all and each 
Shove ashore, then blow up, burn the vessels on the beach ! 

France must undergo her fate. 

" Give the word !" But no such word 

Was ever spoke or heard ; 
For up stood, for out stepped, for in struck, amid all these, 

A captain ! a lieutenant ! a mate — first, second, third ! 

No such man of mark, and meet 

With his betters to compete ! 

But a simple Breton sailor, pressed by Tourville for the fleet — 
A poor, coasting pilot he, Herve Riel the Croisickese. 

And "What mockery or malice have we here ?" cries Herve Riel ; 
" Are you mad, you Malouins ? Are you cowards, fools or rogues ? 

Talk to me of rocks and shoals, me who take the soundings, tell 

On my fingers every bank, every shallow, every swell, 
'Twixt the offing here and Greve, where the river disembogues ? 

Are you bought by British gold ? Is it love the lying's for ? 

.Morn and eve, night and day, 

Have I piloted your bay, 

Entered free and anchored fast at the foot of Solidor. 
Burn the fleet and ruin France ? That were worse than fifty Hogues 

Sirs, they know I speak the truth ! Sirs, believe me, there's a way ! 

" Only let me lead the line, 

Have the biggest ship to steer, 
Get this ' Formidable' clear, 
Make the others follow mine, 

And I lead them, most and least, by a passage I know well, 

Right to Solidor, past Greve, 
And there lay them safe and sound ; 

And if one ship misbehave — 
Keel so much as grate the ground — 
Why, I've nothing but my life ; here's my head !" cries Herve Riel. 



HERVE RIEL. 339 

Not a minute more to wait ! 
" Steer us in, then, small and great ! 

Take the helm, lead the line, save the squadron !" cried its chief, 
" Captains, give the sailor place, 
He is Admiral, in brief." 

Still the north wind, by God's grace ; 

See the noble fellow's face, 

As the big ship, with a bound, 

Clears the entry like a hound, 

Keeps the passage, as its inch of way were the wide sea's profound! 



Safe, safe, through shoal and rock, 

How they follow in a flock ! 

Not a ship that misbehaves, not a keel that grates the ground, 

Not a spar that comes to grief! 

The peril, see, is past, 

All are harbored, to the last, 

And just as Herve Riel halloo's " anchor !" sure as fate, 

Up the British come, too late. 



So the storm subsides to calm ; 

They see the green trees wave 

On the heights o'erlooking Greve ; 
Hearts that bled are staunched with balm 
" Just our rapture to enhance, 
Let the English rake the bay, 

Gnash their teeth and glare askance 
As they cannonade away !" 

'Neath rampired Solidor pleasant riding on the Ranee ! 

Now hope succeeds despair on each captain's countenance I 

Outburst all with one accord, 
" This is Paradise for hell ! 
Let France — let France's king, 
Thank the man that did the thing !" 
What a shout, and all one word, 
" Herve Riel !" 
As he stepped in front once more, 

Not a symptom of surprise 

In the frank, blue Breton eyes, 
Just the same man as before. 



340 PA TRIO TISM. 

Then said Damfreville, " My friend, 
I must speak out at the end, 

Though I find the speaking hard ; 
Praise is deeper than the lips ; 
You have saved the king his ships ! 

You must name your own reward. 
Faith, our sun was near eclipse ! 

Demand whate'er you will, 

France remains your debtor still ! 

Ask to heart's content and have, or my name's not Damfreville. 



Then a beam of fun outbroke 
On the bearded mouth that spoke, 

As the honest heart laughed through 

Those frank eyes of Breton blue ; 
" Since I need must say my say, 

Since on board the duty's done, 

And from Malo Roads to Croisic Point, what is it but a run ! 
Since 'tis ask and have, I may — 

Since the others go ashore — 
Come ! A good whole holiday ! 

Leave to go and see my wife, whom I call the Belle Aurore !" 

That he asked, and that he got — nothing more. 



Name and deed alike are lost ; 
Not a pillar or a post 

In his Croisic keeps alive the feat as it befell ; 
Not a head in white or black 
On a single fishing smack, 
In memory of the man but for whom had gone to wrack 

All that France saved from the fight whence England bore the bell. 



Go to Paris ; rank on rank 

Search the heroes flung pell-mell 
On the Louvre, face and flank ; 

You shall look long enough ere you come to Herve Riel ! 
So, for better and for worse, 
Herve Riel, accept my verse ! 

In my verse, Herve Riel, do thou once more 

Save the squadron, honor France, love thy wife, the Belle Aurore ! 



A PATRIOT'S LAST APPEAL. 341 

A PATRIOT'S LAST APPEAL. 



Wk? OBERT Emmet, born in Cork, in 1780, an 

p|l ardent friend of Irish independence, at the 

!U§ a S e °f twenty-three placed himself at the 

mjf head of a party of insurgents in Dublin, 

'^^^M^^^^ with a view of attacking the Castle. They 

^^y^^t^^^n were, however, dispersed by the military, 

^^y^^S^ and Emmet escaped to the Wicklow Moun- 

^$F^ tains. He might have evaded the pursuit 

of the government officials, but an attachment for Miss Curran, 

the daughter of the celebrated barrister, induced him to return 

to Dublin to bid her farewell, before leaving the country. 

He was apprehended, tried, and convicted of high treason. 
The speech he delivered, in his own behalf, to the judge and 
jury, is one of the most celebrated utterances on record. We 
give it in full. He met his fate with courage, and won general 
admiration for the purity and loftiness of his motives. The 
tragic end, while still so young, of one so highly gifted and so 
enthusiastic, has been the subject of universal regret. 

" My Lords : What have I to say why sentence of death 
should not be pronounced on me, according to law ? I have 
nothing to say that can alter your predetermination, nor that 
it will become me to say with any view to the mitigation of 
that sentence which you are here to pronounce, and I must 
abide by. But I have that to say which interests me more 
than life, and which you have labored to destroy. I have 
much to say why my reputation should be rescued from the 
load of false accusation and calumny which has been heaped 
upon it. 

"Were I only to suffer death, after being adjudged guilty by 
your tribunal, I should bow in silence, and meet the fate that 
awaits me without a murmur ; but the sentence of law which 
delivers my body to the executioner will, through the ministry 
of that law, labor, in its own vindication, to consign my char- 



342 PA TRIO TISM. 

acter to obloquy ; for there must be guilt somewhere — whether 
in the sentence of the court or in the catastrophe, posterity- 
must determine. The man dies, but his memory lives. That 
mine may not perish — that it may live in the respect of my 
countrymen — I seize upon this opportunity to vindicate myself 
from some of the charges alleged against me. 

"When my spirit shall be wafted to a more friendly port; 
when my shade shall have joined the bands of those martyred 
heroes who have shed their blood, on the scaffold and in the 
field, in defence of my country and virtue ; this is my hope — I 
wish that my memory and name may animate those who sur- 
vive me, while I look down with complacency on the destruc- 
tion of that perfidious government which upholds its domination 
by blasphemy of the Most High, which displays its powers 
over man as over the beasts of the forest, which sets man upon 
his brother, and lifts his hand, in the name of God, against the 
throat of his fellow who believes or doubts a little more, or 
less, than the government standard — a government which is 
steeled to barbarity by the cries of the orphans and the tears 
of the widows which its cruelty has made. 

"I swear, by the throne of Heaven, before which I must 
shortly appear, by the blood of the murdered patriots who 
have gone before me, that my conduct has been, through all 
this peril and in all my purposes, governed only by the con- 
victions which I have uttered, and no other view than that of 
the emancipation of my country from the super-inhuman op- 
pression under which she has so long and too impatiently 
travailed, and that I confidently and assuredly hope, wild 
and chimerical as it may appear, that there is still union and 
strength in Ireland to accomplish this noble enterprise. 

" My country was my idol. To it I sacrificed every selfish, 
every endearing sentiment ; and for it I now offer up my life ! 
I acted as an Irishman determined on delivering my country 
from the yoke of a foreign and unrelenting tyranny, and from 
the more galling yoke of a domestic faction, its joint partner 
and perpetrator in the patricide, whose reward is the ignominy 



A PATRIOT'S LAST APPEAL. 343 

of existing with an exterior of splendor and a consciousness 
of depravity. It was the wish of my heart to extricate my 
country from this doubly riveted despotism. I wished to place 
her independence beyond the reach of any power on earth. I 
wished to exalt her to that proud station in the world which 
Providence had fitted her to fill. 

" I have been charged with that importance, in the efforts to 
emancipate my country, as to be considered the keystone of 
the combination of Irishmen, or, as your lordship expressed 
it, ' the life and blood of the conspiracy.' You do me honor 
overmuch. You have given to the subaltern all the credit of 
a superior. There are men engaged in this conspiracy who are 
not only superior to me, but even to your own conceptions of 
yourself, my Lord — men before the splendor of whose genius 
and virtues I should bow with respectful deference, and who 
would think themselves dishonored to be called your friends. 

" Let no man dare, when I am dead, to charge me with dis- 
honor; let no man attaint my memory by believing that I 
could have engaged in any cause but that of my country's 
liberty and independence, or that I could have become the 
pliant minion of power in the oppression or the miseries of my 
countrymen. I would not have submitted to a foreign op- 
pressor, for the same reason that I would resist the domestic 
tyrant; in the dignity of freedom I would have fought upon 
the threshold of my country, and her enemies should enter 
only by passing over my lifeless corpse. Am I, who lived but 
for my country, and who have subjected myself to the ven- 
geance of the jealous and wrathful oppressor, and to the 
bondage of the grave, only to give my countrymen their rights 
and my country her independence — am I to be loaded with 
calumny, and not to be suffered to resent or repel it ? No ! 
God forbid ! 

" If the spirits of the illustrious dead participate in the con- 
cerns and cares of those who are dear to them in this transitory 
life, O ever dear and venerated shade of my departed father, 
look down with scrutiny on the conduct of your suffering son, 



344 PA TRIO TISM. 

and see if I have even for a moment deviated from those prin- 
ciples of morality and patriotism which it was your care to 
instill into my youthful mind, and for an adherence to which 
I am now to offer up my life ! 

" My Lords, you are all impatient for the sacrifice. The blood 
which you seek is not congealed by the artificial terrors which 
surround your victim; it circulates warmly and unruffled 
through the channels which God created for noble purposes, 
but which you are bent to destroy, for purposes so grievous 
that they cry to heaven ! 

" Be ye patient ; I have but a few words more to say. I am 
going to my silent grave; my lamp of life is nearly extin- 
guished ; my race is run ; the grave opens to receive me, and 
I sink into its bosom. I have but one request to ask at my 
departure from this world — it is the charity of its silence. Let 
no man write my epitaph ; for, as no one who knows my 
motives dare now vindicate them, let not prejudice or ignorance 
asperse them. Let them and me repose in obscurity and peace, 
and my tomb remain uninscribed, until other times and other 
men can do justice to my character. When my country shall 
take her place among the nations of the earth, then, and not 
till then, let my epitaph be written. I have done." 



REPLY TO M. DE BREZE 

On the occasion of his communicating to the National 
Assembly of France, June 23d, 1789, an order from the king 
for their dispersion : — 

" The Commons of France have resolved to deliberate. We 
have heard the intentions that have been attributed to the king; 
and you, sir, who cannot be recognized as his organ in the 
National Assembly — you, who have here neither place, voice, 
nor right to speak — you are not the person to bring to us a 
message of his. Go, say to those who sent you, that we are here 
by the power of the people, and that we will not be driven hence, 
save by the power of the bayonet." Mirabeau. 



A PLEA FOR JUSTICE TO THE CHEROKEES. 345 

A PLEA FOR JUSTICE TO THE CHEROKEES. 



WILLIAM WIRT. 




HIS eloquent appeal in favor of dealing justly 
and honorably with the Cherokees was de- 
livered in the United States Supreme Court, 
in January, 1 83 1 , in the case of " The Chero- 
kees against the State of Georgia," when 
the matter of their removal to a Western 
Reservation was on trial. 

" It is with no ordinary feelings that I am 
about to take leave of this cause. The existence of the rem- 
nant of a once great and mighty nation is at stake, and it is 
for your honors to say whether they shall be blotted out from 
the creation, in utter disregard of all our treaties. Their cause 
is one that must come home to every honest arid feeling heart. 
They have been true and faithful to us, and have a right to 
expect a corresponding fidelity on our part. Our wish has 
been their law. We asked them to become civilized, and they 
became so. They have even adopted our resentments, and in 
our war with the Seminole tribes they voluntarily joined our 
arms, and gave effectual aid in driving back those barbarians 
from the very State that now oppresses them. They threw 
upon the field a body of men who proved, by their martial 
bearing, their descent from the noble race that were once the 
lords of these extensive forests. 

"May it please your honors, this people have refused to us 
no gratification which it has been in their power to grant. 
They are here now in the last extremity, and with them must 
perish the honor of the American name forever. We have 
pledged, for their protection and for the guarantee of the re- 
mainder of their lands, the faith and honor of our nation — a 
faith and honor never sullied, nor even drawn into question, 



346 PA TRIO TISM. 

until now. We promised them and they trusted us. They 
trust us still. Shall they be deceived? They would as soon 
expect to see their rivers run upward on their'sources, or the 
sun roll back in his career, as that the United States should 
prove false to them, and false to the word so solemnly pledged 
by their Washington, and renewed and perpetuated by his 
illustrious successors. 

" With the existence of this people the faith of our nation, I 
repeat it, is fatally linked. The blow which destroys them 
quenches forever our own glory ; for, what glory can there be 
of which a patriot can be proud, after the good name of his 
country shall have departed ? We may gather laurels on the 
field, and trophies on the ocean, but they will never hide this 
foul and bloody blot upon our escutcheon. ' Remember the 
Cherokee Nation ! ' will be answer enough to the proudest 
boast that we can ever make — answer enough to cover with 
confusion the face and the heart of every man among us in 
whose bosom the last spark of grace has not been extin- 
guished. 

" I hope for better things. There is a spirit that will yet 
save us. I trust that we shall find it here — here in this sacred 
court; where no foul and malignant demon of party enters to 
darken the understanding, or to deaden the heart, but where 
all is clear, calm, pure, vital and firm. I cannot believe 
that this honorable court, possessing the power of preser- 
vation, will stand by and see these people stripped of their 
property, and extirpated from the earth, while they are hold- 
ing up to us their treaties, and claiming the fulfillment of our 
engagements. If truth, and faith, and honor,. and justice, have 
fled from every other part of our country, we shall find 
them here. If not, our sun has gone down in treachery, 
blood and crime, in the face of the world ; and, instead of 
being proud of our country, as heretofore, we may well call 
upon the rocks and mountains to hide our shame from earth 
and from heaven." 



LEPERDIT, THE TAILOR. 
LEPERDIT, THE TAILOR. 



347 



M. BETHAM-EDWARDS. 




EPERDIT was a poor tailor, born at Pontiby, 
France, and raised, during the Reign of 
Terror, to the position of Mayor of Rennes. 
When Carrier went to Rennes, determined 
to repeat the horrors he had just perpe- 
trated at Nantes, he asked for a list of pro- 
scriptions, which was drawn up and handed 
to Leperdit to sign. " I will not sign it," 
he said to the messenger, and immediately tore up the paper. 
" You wish to die then ? " " It will, at least, be in the fulfill- 
ment of my duty," he answered. He then went straight to 
Carrier, who asked for the list. " I have torn it up," said 
Leperdit. " Who, then, is master here — you or I ? " asked 
Carrier, infuriated. " Neither of us : the law is master," replied 
the tailor. " You wish me to send you to the guillotine, I 
suppose?" "Send me!" said Leperdit. This indomitable 
spirit staggered Carrier. Some days afterward there arrived 
at Rennes a batch of non-juring priests. " They are beyond 
the pale of the law," shouted Carrier. " They are not beyond 
the pale of humanity," said Leperdit. This magnanimous 
speech became celebrated. " I am going to Nantes," said 
Carrier, " but I shall return." " You will find me here," the 
tailor replied firmly. When, in 1 808, Napoleon went to Nantes, 
he was struck by the noble figure of Leperdit, and asked his 
name. " Leperdit, the tailor." " What do the people think 
about me ? " asked the Emperor of Leperdit. " Sire, they 
admire you." " And what else ? " " Sire, they admire 
you." " And after — do you mean to say they blame 
me?" "Yes, Sire. They admire your genius and blame 
your despotism." The Emperor tried to win him over, and 
after an interview left him, muttering, " Iron-headed." On the 



348 



PATRIVTISM. 



second restoration, Leperdit refused to take the oath, being a 
staunch republican. " Take care, sir," said the Prefet. " People 
don't play with the king without paying for it." " You are 
young, sir, to instruct me," answered Leperdit. " Will you or 
will you not take the oath ? " " Never ! " " You hold your 
head very high." " I have never done anything to make me 
hold it down," answered the tailor. 



BRUCE TO THE SCOTS, AT BANNOCKBURN. 



ROBERT BURNS. 



jfc 



S.COTS, wha hae wi' Wallace bled, 
Scots, wham Bruce has often led, 
Welcome to your gory bed, 
Or to glorious victory. 

Now's the day, and now's the hour ; 
See the front o' battle lower, 
See approach proud Edward's power- 
Edward ! chains and slavery ! 

Wha will be a traitor knave ? 
Wha can fill a coward's grave ? 
Wha sae base as be a slave ? 
Traitor ! coward ! turn and flee ! 

Wha for Scotland's king and law 
Freedom's sword will strongly draw. 
Freeman stand, or freeman fa', 
Caledonian ! on wi' me. 

By oppression's woes and pains ! 
By your sons in servile chains ! 
We will drain our dearest veins, 
But they shall be — shall be free ! 

Lay the proud usurpers low ! 
Tyrants fall in every foe ! 
Liberty's in every blow ! 
Forward ! let us do or die ! 



THE MONK AND THE KING. 349 

THE MONK AND THE KING. 




HARLES VIII marched into Florence in 1494. 
What was to be done in the city ? It seemed to 
be given up to the brutality and recklessness of 
the French army. In his sermon, Savonarola 
had said, " When you shall find yourselves in 
these straits and tribulations, you will become 
like drunken men, and lose all use of reason." 
It was known that the French king was about 
to give orders for letting loose his troops on the city ; a panic 
naturally seized the hearts of all men, when suddenly some 
voice cried, in the assembly of the councillors, " Go to the 
servant of God, Fra Girolome ! Go to the servant of God, Fra 
Girolome ! " Instantly it seemed a wonder that they had not 
gone to him before ; a sudden change, a gleam of hope, came 
over the minds of the council. A deputation hastened breath- 
lessly to St. Marks ; there they found the prior with all the 
brethren, before the altar, praying that God would avert the 
impending calamity from the city. The mysterious prior had 
adopted some precautions for the defence of his priory. Those 
who sought him found him calm, clear and prepared. He 
listened to the deputation announcing the catastrophe which 
would that night 'take place. " My children," said he to his 
brethren of the monastery, " take some refreshment ; then come 
back to the choir, and continue in prayer till I return." He 
took one of the brethren for a companion, and went forth to 
the palace of De Medici, to see the king. He could not 
enter ; the sentinel thrust him rudely back ; the barons had 
given orders that no one should see the king. He returned to 
his convent, and gave himself up some little time, with 
earnestness, to prayer. Presently he said he heard a voice 
within him saying, " Return, return ; you shall enter." He 
spoke to his companion, the friar ; " Let us go back to the 
palace ; I will confer with the king." The singular story tells 



350 PA TRIO TISM. 

us, this time he passed not only the first but a second and a 
third sentry ; he reached the chamber of the king, who stood 
armed, ready for the accomplishment of his nefarious design. 

The undaunted friar went immediately up to the presence 
of the king, holding up his crucifix to the king's lips. " This," 
he said, " represents Christ, the Majesty who made Heaven 
and earth. Do not respect me ; respect Him ! " The language 
he then adopted, so far as it has come to us, seems not to have 
been very humble. He reminded the king that God was the 
God of armies, to punish and bring ruin on unjust and impious 
kings ; reminded him that by his pride he was brought to 
covet what was not his, and menaced him with a certain retri- 
bution if he persisted. It seems strange to us ; the king was 
in possession, and the city had lost its wits, but he was 
humbled, and bowed before the voice which we have heard a 
short time before ringing through the great dome. The friar 
dealt with him as one prince might deal with another. He 
took him by the hand, saying: " Know, sacred majesty, that 
the will of God is that you depart from this city without 
making any change in its affairs ; otherwise you and your 
army will lose your lives here." And Charles left the city. 
Mischief enough had been done ; but probably the mischief 
averted was something like that which decimated Milan 
beneath the sword of Barbarossa. 

The chief nobles of Charles acknowledged that the salvation 
of Florence was the work of Savonarola. — Eclectic Review. 




oooooooooooooooooooo 0000000° 



INTEGRITY. 



oooooooooooooooooo ooooooooo o 



" I hope I shall alioays possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain 
what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an 'Honest 
Man.' " 

— Washington. 



PART VI. 



INTEGRITY. 



DEFENCE OF SOCRATES. 



O'er all shone out the great Athenian sage, 

And father of Philosophy ! 

Tutor of Athens ! he, in every street, 

Dealt priceless treasure ; goodness his delight, 

Wisdom his wealth, and glory his reward. 

Deep through the human heart, with playful art, 

His simple questions stole, as into truth 

And serious deeds he led the laughing race ; 

Taught moral life ; and what he taught he was. 




James Thomson. 



TRANGE, indeed, would be my conduct, O 
men of Athens, when, as I conceive and 
imagine, God orders me to fulfill the philos- 
opher's mission of searching into myself and 
other men, I were to desert my post through 
fear of death, or any other fear ; that would, 
indeed, be strange, and I might justly be 
arraigned in court for denying the existence of the gods, if 
I obeyed the oracle because I was afraid of death ; then I 
should be fancying I was wise, when I was not wise. For 
this fear of death is, indeed, the pretence of wisdom, being 
23 353 



354 INTEGRITY. 

the appearance of knowing the unknown ; since no one knows 
whether death, which he in his fear apprehends to be the 
greatest evil, may not be the greatest good. Is there not 
here conceit of knowledge which is a disgraceful sort of igno- 
rance ? 

And this is the point in which, as I think, I am superior 
to men in general, and in which I might, perhaps, fancy 
myself wiser than other men — that, whereas I know but 
little of the world below, I do not suppose that I know; 
but I do know, that injustice and disobedience to a better, 
whether God or man, is evil and dishonorable, and I will 
never fear or avoid a possible good rather than a certain 
evil. 

And, therefore, should you say to me, " Socrates, this time 
we will not mind Anytus, and will let you off, but upon one 
condition, that you are not to inquire and speculate in this way 
any more, and that if you are caught doing this again, you 
shall die " — if this were the condition on which you let me go, 
I should reply, " Men of Athens, I honor and love you ; but 
I shall obey God rather than you, and while I have life and 
strength I shall never cease from the practice and teaching of 
philosophy, and exhorting, after my manner, any one whom I 
meet * * * * I do nothing but go about persuading 
you all, old and young alike, not to take thought for your 
persons or properties, but first and chiefly to take care about 
the greatest improvement of the soul. I tell you that virtue 
is not given by money, but that from virtue come money and 
every other good of man, public as well as private. This is 
my teaching ; and if this is the doctrine which corrupts the 
youth, my influence is ruinous, indeed. But, if any one says 
that this is not my teaching, he is speaking an untruth. Where- 
fore, O men of Athens, I say to you, do as Anytus bids or not 
as Anytus bids, and either acquit me or not ; but, whatever 
you do, know that I shall never alter my ways, not even if I 
have to die many times." 

— Extract from Translation of Prof. Jowett, of Oxford. 



THE PRISONER OF CHILL ON. 
THE PRISONER OF CHILLON. 



355 



" My hair is gray, but not with years, 
Nor grew it white 
In a single night, 
As men's have grown from sudden fears : 

My limbs are bowed, though not with toil, 
But rusted with a vile repose, 

For they have been a dungeon's spoil, 
And mine has been the fate of those 

To whom the goodly earth and air 

Are bann'd, and barr'd — forbidden fare; 
But this was for my father's faith 
I suffered chains and courted death ; 
That father perished at the stake 
For tenets he would not forsake ; 
And for the same his lineal race 
In darkness found a dwelling place. 

****** 

There are seven pillars of Gothic mould, 
In Chillon's dungeons deep and old; 
***** * 

And in each pillar there is a ring, 
And in each ring there is a chain ; 

That iron is a cankering thing, 

For in these limbs its teeth remain 

With marks that will not wear away." 




RANgOIS de Bonnivard, " the Prisoner of 
Chillon," son of Louis de Bonnivard, a 
native of Seysel, and Signeur of Lunes, 
was born in 1496; he was educated at 
Turin. In 15 10 his uncle, Jean Reine de 
Bonnivard, resigned to him the Priory of 
Saint Victor, which adjoins the walls of 
Geneva, and which was a considerable living. 

This great man — Bonnivard is deserving of this title, from 
the greatness of his soul, the uprightness of his heart, the 
nobility of his intentions, the wisdom of his counsels, the 



356 INTEGRITY. 

courage of his actions, the extent of his learning, and the bril- 
liancy of his wit — this great man, who will ever excite the 
admiration of all those whom an heroic virtue can move, will 
always inspire the most lively gratitude in the hearts of all 
those Genevese who love Geneva. Bonnivard was always one 
of its firmest supporters ; to protect the liberty of the Republic, 
he never feared to lose his own ; he forgot his ease ; he 
despised his wealth ; he neglected nothing to render certain 
the happiness of the country that he dignified by his adoption; 
from that moment he loved it as the most zealous of its citizens, 
he served it with the intrepidity of a hero, and he wrote its 
history with the simplicity of a philosopher and the ardor of a 
patriot. 

While yet young, he stood boldly forward as the defender 
of Geneva against the Duke of Savoy and the Bishop. 

In 15 19 Bonnivard became the martyr of his country; the 
Duke of Savoy having entered Geneva with five hundred 
men, Bonnivard feared the resentment of the Duke ; he wished 
to return to Flabourg to avoid the consequences ; but he was 
betrayed by two men who accompanied him, and conducted 
by order of the prince to Grolee, where, for two years, he 
remained a prisoner. 

Bonnivard was unfortunate in his travels. As his misfor- 
tunes had not slackened his zeal for Geneva, he was always a 
redoubtable enemy to those who threatened it, and accord- 
ingly was likely to be exposed to their violence. He was met, 
in 1530, in the Jura, by thieves, who stripped him of every- 
thing and placed him again in the hands of the Duke of Savoy. 
This prince caused him to be confined in . the Chateau of 
Chillon, where he remained without being submitted to any 
interrogatory until 1536; he was then delivered by the Bernois, 
who took possession of the Pays de Vaud. 

On leaving his captivity he had the pleasure of finding 
Geneva free and reformed. The republic hastened to testify 
its gratitude to him, and to recompense him for the evils 
which he had suffered. It received him as a citizen of the 



THE PRISONER OF CHILLON. 357 

town, in the month of June, 1536; it gave him the house for- 
merly occupied by the Vicar-General, and assigned to him a 
pension of two hundred gold crowns, as long as he should 
sojourn in Geneva. He was admitted into the Council of 
Two Hundred, in 1537. Bonnivard did not now cease to 
be useful ; after having labored to make Geneva free, he 
succeeded in making it tolerant. He prevailed upon the 
Council to accord to the Calvinists and peasants a suffi- 
cient time for examining the propositions which were made 
to them ; he succeeded by his meekness. Christianity is 
always preached with success when it is preached with 
charity. 

Bonnivard was learned. His manuscripts, which are in the 
Public Library, proved that he had diligently studied the 
Latin classics, and that he had penetrated the depths of 
theology and history. 

This great man loved the sciences, and thought they would 
constitute the glory of Geneva; accordingly he neglected 
nothing to establish them in this rising town. In 155 1 he 
gave his library to the public ; it was the commencement of 
the Public Library. And a portion of his books are those 
rare and beautiful editions of the fifteenth century which are 
still seen here. Finally, during the same year, this good 
patriot appointed the republic his heir, on condition that it 
would employ his wealth in supporting the college, the 
foundation of which was being projected. 

It appears that Bonnivard died in 1570; but this cannot be 
certified, as an hiatus occurs in the necrology from the month 
of July, 1570, to 1 571. 

" Chillon ! thy prison is a holy place, 

And thy sad floor an altar — for 'twas trod, 

Until his very steps have left a trace, 

Worn, as if thy cold pavement were a sod, 

By Bonnivard ! May none those marks efface ! 
For they appeal from tyranny to God !" 

Lord Byron. 



358 INTEGRITY. 

"THESE ARE MY JEWELS." 




ORNELIA, the author of the words, "These are 
my jewels," was the youngest daughter of Scipio 
Africanus and Amelia, his wife. 

She was born, 189 b. c. No details have 
reached us of her early life. In her twentieth 
year she married Tiberius Gracchus. The union 
was a happy one, and they were blessed with 
many noble children. The public duties of Tiberius claimed 
his time so, that the care of the household and the educa- 
tion of the family devolved on Cornelia, and she acquitted 
herself of the duties in a manner which has elicited the ad- 
miration of the world. She maintained in herself, and trans- 
mitted to her sons, the grand and severe virtues of her 
father. 

She had inherited from Scipio a love of the arts and for litera- 
ture ; and her letters, which were extant in the time of Quin- 
tilian, two hundred years afterwards, were often cited with 
praise by him and by Cicero. The reply of Cornelia to a 
wealthy lady of Campania, who requested to see her jewels, is 
the most remarkable incident in her career. Adroitly turning 
the conversation upon subjects likely to interest and detain her 
visitor till her boys came home from school, she said, as they 
entered the room, " These are my jewels ! " 

Probably no character was ever so clearly drawn in so few 
words ; no delineation can possibly add to it. If nothing were 
known of Cornelia but this one speech, the historian would 
still find a sufficient basis upon which to construct the whole 
character. 

The three obscure lines in which Valerius Maximus narrates 
the anecdote, have probably been as often translated, as widely 
repeated, and as deeply reflected upon, as any other three which 
have been left us by the writers of antiquity. 

— Anonymous. 



"WHILE I LIVE, I SHALL DESPISE THE PERIL." 359 



WHILE I 



LIVE, I SHALL DESPISE THE 
PERIL!" 




OHN Philpot Curran, born in 1750, died in 
18 17, was the greatest barrister of his time. 
The following is an extract from a speech 
made in the Irish Parliament, of which he 
was a member, in 1790. He had overcome 
an impediment in his speech — that of stutter- 
ing, and had acquired a slow, distinct utter- 
ance. His powers of mimicry, ridicule, and 
sarcasm gave him great success in the cross- 
examination of witnesses. In the Irish Parliament, which he 
entered in 1783, he took the side of the opposition, which was 
headed by the celebrated Henry Grattan. Curran was a firm 
and steadfast friend of Ireland, and his country still re- 
members him with grateful veneration. 

" We have been told this night, in express words, that the 
man who dares to do his duty to his country in this house may 
expect to be attacked without these walls by the military gen- 
tlemen of the castle. If the army had been directly or 
indirectly mentioned in the course of the debate, this extraor- 
dinary declaration might be attributable to the confusion of a 
mistaken charge or an absurd vindication; but, without 
connection with the subject, a new principle of government is 
advanced, and that is — the bayonet. And this is stated in the 
fullest house, and the most crowded audience I ever saw. 

" We are to be silenced by corruption within, or quelled by 
force of arms without. If the strength of numbers or corrup- 
tion should fail against the cause of the public, it is to be 
backed by assassination. Nor is it necessary that those avowed 
principles of bribery and arms should come from any high 
personal authority; they have been delivered by the known 
retainers of the administration, in the face of that bench, and 
heard even without a murmur of dissent or disapprobation. 
" For my part, I do not know how it may be my destiny to 



360 INTEGRITY. 

fall ; it may be by chance, or malady, or violence ; but, should 
it be my fate to perish the victim of a bold and honest discharge 
of my duty, I will not shun it. I will do that duty ; and if it 
should expose me to sink under the blow of the assassin, and 
become a victim to the public cause, the most sensible of my 
regrets would be that on such an altar there should not be 
immolated a more illustrious sacrifice. 

" As to myself, while I live, I shall despise the peril. I feel 
in my own spirit the safety of my honor ; and in my own and 
the spirit of the people do I feel strength enough to hold that 
administration which can give a sanction to menaces like 
these responsible for their consequences to the nation and the 
individual." 



A BEAUTIFUL STORY. 



S. T. COLERIDGE. 




LEXANDER, during his march into Africa, came 
to a people dwelling in peaceful huts, who knew 
neither war nor conquest. Gold being offered 
him, he refused it, saying that his sole object 
was to learn the manners and customs of the 
inhabitants. " Stay with us," said the Chief "as 
long as it pleaseth thee." During this interview 
with the African Chief, two of his subjects 
brought a case before him for judgment. The dispute was 
this : The one had bought a piece of ground, which, after 
the purchase, was found to contain a treasure, for which he felt 
himself bound to pay The other refused to receive anything, 
stating that he had sold the ground with what it might be found 
to contain, apparent or concealed. Said the Chief, looking 
at the one, " You have a son ; " and to the other, 
" You have a daughter ; let them be married, and the treasure 
be given them as a dowry." Alexander was astonished. 



THE INCORRUPTIBLE PHYSICIAN. 



361 



" And what," said the Chief, " would have been the decision 
of your country ? " " We should have dismissed the parties 
and seized the treasure for the King's use." " And does the 
sun shine in your country ? " said the Chief; " does the rain 
fall there ? Are there any cattle there which feed upon herbs 
and green grass ? " " Certainly," said Alexander. " Ah," 
said the Chief, " it is for the sake of the innocent cattle that the 
Great Being permits the sun to shine, the rain to fall and the 
grass to grow in your country." 



THE INCORRUPTIBLE PHYSICIAN. 




HE Caliph Mutewekel had at his court a 
foreign physician by the name of Honain, 
whom he respected highly on account of 
his great accomplishments. 

Certain of his courtiers wishing to arouse 
his suspicions concerning this man, said to 
the Caliph that he could not rely on his 
fidelity, since he was a foreigner; where- 
upon Mutewekel grew uneasy and resolved to ascertain 
whether there were any reasons for doubting his integrity. 

He sent and had the physician brought before him, and 
said : " Honain, I have among my Emirs a dangerous enemy, 
against whom it would be impolitic to use force, since he is a 
man of unbounded popularity ; therefore, I command you to 
prepare me an acute poison that will do its work so well that 
no clue to it can be traced after death. To-morrow I will give 
a dinner, to which he will be invited, and then I will rid myself 
of him." 

Honain indignantly replied : " My knowledge extends no 
further than to the compounding of such drugs as are useful 
in preserving life ; in the preparation of others, I am not 
skilled. I have taken no pains to increase my knowledge 



362 INTEGRITY. 

beyond these limits, since I believe that the Ruler of the 
Faithful will require no such service of me. If I have done 
wrong in this matter, permit me to withdraw from your 
court." 

Mutewekel replied that this was an empty excuse ; that he 
who knew the nature of the healing remedies, was also 
acquainted with those that were poisonous. He begged, he 
threatened, he even promised presents, if the physician would 
comply with his commands ; but all in vain. Honain remained 
true to his first resolution. 

Finally the Caliph feigned great wrath, called the guards and 
commanded them to lead this obstinate man to prison. He 
was put in confinement, and with him a spy under the disguise 
of a fellow prisoner, who was to question Honain and inform 
the Caliph of all that the former should say. Honain, however, 
did not reveal by a single word or sign why the Caliph was 
angry with him ; all that he said was that he was innocent. 

After several months, the Caliph had Honain brought before 
him again. Upon a table in the room lay a heap of gold, 
diamonds and precious stuffs ; but beside it stood the execu- 
tioner with a scourge in his hand and a sword under his arm. 

" You have already had time enough," said Mutewekel, " to 
ponder over this matter and realize the folly of your stubborn- 
ness ; therefore make a choice. Either take these riches and 
comply with my demands, or prepare for a shameful death." 

But Honain replied that the disgrace lay not in the sentence, 
but in the crime ; that he would rather die than bring a stain 
either upon his profession or his reputation ; that the Caliph 
was the arbiter of his life, and that he was content to submit 
to his decree. 

" Leave me," said Mutewekel to his retainers, and as soon 
as they were alone he stretched forth his hand to the conscien- 
tious -physician and said : " Honain, I am satisfied with you ; 
you are my friend and I am yours. My courtiers tried to 
make me suspect you, and I thought I must put a test on your 
fidelity, to find out whether I could rely upon you unreservedly. 



THE INCORRUPTIBLE PATRIOT. 



363 



Not as a reward, but as a token of my friendship, will I send 
you these same presents with which I was unable to corrupt 
you." 

So spake the Caliph, and commanded the gold, the precious 
stones and the costly stuffs to be carried to Honain's house. 

— From the German. 



THE INCORRUPTIBLE PATRIOT. 



EDWARD C. JONES. 



Governor Johnstone offered Gen. Joseph Reed .£10,000 sterling, if he would try to re-unite the 
colonies to the mother country. Said he ; "1 am not worth purchasing ; but such as I am, 
the King of Great Britain is not rich enough to buy me." 
I BS'-*- 

*|'^=p SPURN your gilded bait, oh King ! my faith you cannot buy ; 
||| Go, tamper with some craven heart, and dream of victory; 
g2| My honor never shall be dimmed by taking such a bribe ; 
kk» The honest man can look above the mercenary tribe. 



Carlisle and Eden may consort to bring about a peace ; 
Our year of jubilee will be the year of our release ; 
Until your fleets and armies are all remanded back, 
Freedom's avenging angel will keep upon your track. 

What said our noble Laurens ? What answer did he make ? 
Did he accept your overtures, and thus our cause forsake ? 
No ! as his country's mouth-piece, he spoke the burning 

words, 
' Off with conciliation's terms — the battle is the Lord's ! " 

Are ye afraid of Bourbon's house ? And do ye now despair, 
Because to shield the perishing, the arm of France is bare ? 
That treaty of alliance, which makes a double strife, 
Has, like the sun, but warmed afresh your viper brood 
to life. 



And art thou, Johnstone, art thou, pray, upon this mission sent, 
To keep at distance, by thy craft, the throne's dismemberment ? 
Dismemberment! — ah, come it must, for union is a sin, 
When parents' hands the furnace heat, and thrust the children in. 



364 



INTEGRITY. 



Why, English hearts there are at home that pulsate with our own ; 
Voices beyond Atlantic's waves send forth a loving tone ; 
Within the Cabinet are men who would not offer gold 
To see our country's liberty, like chattel, bought and sold. 

You say that office shall be mine if I the traitor play ; 

Can office ever compensate for honesty's decay ? 

Ten thousand pounds ! ten thousand pounds ! Shall I an Esau 

prove, 
And for a mess of pottage sell the heritage I love ? 

If you can blot out Bunker Hill, or Brandywine ignore, 

Or Valley Forge annihilate, and wipe away its gore ; 

If you can make the orphans' tears forget to plead with God, 

Then you may find a patriot's soul that owns a monarch's nod. 

The King of England cannot buy the faith which fills my heart ; 
My truth and virtue cannot stand in traffic's servile mart ; 
For till your fleets and armies are all remanded back, 
Freedom's avenging angel will keep upon your track. 



A DEVOTED PHILANTHROPIST. 




S soon as the Spaniards had gained a firm foot- 
hold in Mexico and Cuba, in the early part of 
the sixteenth century, they inaugurated a series 
of cruel and oppressive measures that threatened 
a speedy extermination of the natives. One of 
their most inhuman procedures was known as 
the Reparihniento system, which meant en- 
slaving the Indians and parceling them out 
among their conquerors. So atrocious and merciless was 
their conduct that it quickly called forth the earnest and per- 
sistent protests of a humane and sympathetic Dominican 
friar, Las Casas, who had come over from Spain in the train 
of a Spanish grandee. He was so thoroughly impressed with 
the enormity of this and other crimes committed against the 
natives, that he at once set himself assiduously to work to 
ameliorate their condition, and continued laboring in their 



A DEVOTED PHILANTHROPIST. 365 

behalf for over fifty years. He crossed the ocean sixteen 
times, to lay their grievances before the Spanish king and his 
council, besides undergoing numberless hardships, humiliations 
and disappointments. Las Casas also acquired great fame in 
the domain of literature, by his contributions to the history of 
the Spanish conquests in Cuba and Mexico ; but it is chiefly 
by reason of his labors for the welfare of the poor unfortunates 
of those countries that he is best known to the world at large. 

Of an ardent and fiery temper, that could ill brook opposi- 
tion, it is but natural that his impetuosity should sometimes 
carry him beyond the bounds of prudence and moderation ; 
but with all his shortcomings, he is deserving of the honorable 
title of " The Apostle to the Indians." 

A distinguished writer on Spanish-American affairs thus 
sums up his character and work : — 

" The character of Las Casas can be inferred from his 
career. He was one of those to whose gifted minds are 
revealed those glorious moral truths which, like the light of 
Heaven, are fixed and the same forever, but which, though 
now familiar, were hidden from all but a few penetrating 
intellects by the general darkness of the time in which he 
lived. He was a reformer, and had the virtues and errors of a 
reformer. He was inspired by one great and glorious idea. 
This was the key to all his thoughts, to all he said and wrote, 
to every act of his long life. 

It was this which urged him to lift the voice of rebuke in 
the presence of princes, to brave the menaces of an infuriated 
populace, to cross seas, to traverse mountains and deserts, to 
incur the alienation of friends, the hostility of enemies, to en- 
dure obloquy, insult and persecution. His views were pure 
and elevated; but his manner of enforcing them was not 
always so commendable. Las Casas, in short, was a man. 
But if he had the errors of humanity, he had virtues which 
rarely belong to it. The best commentary on his character is 
the estimation he obtained at the court of his sovereign. A 
liberal pension was settled on him after his last return from 



366 INTEGRITY. 

America, which he chiefly expended on charitable objects. No 
measure of importance relating to the Indians was taken with- 
out his advice. He lived to see the fruits of his efforts in the 
positive amelioration of their condition, and the popular 
admission of those great truths which it had been the object 
of his life to unfold. And who shall say how much of the 
successful efforts and arguments since made in behalf of per- 
secuted humanity may not be traced to the example and 
writings of this illustrious philanthropist. 

From a recently published work of great historical value and 
accuracy, by Hubert H. Bancroft, entitled " History of Central 
America," we quote the following brief biographical sketch, 
and an account of the condition of things at the time Las 
Casas commenced his active ministrations : — 

"A steadily growing character, impressing itself more and 
more upon the affairs of the Indians as time went by, was that 
of Bartolome de las Casas. Born at Seville, in 1474, he 
conned his humanities at Salamanca, making little stir among 
the Gamaliels there, but taking his bachelor's degree in 
his eighteenth year. After a residence of about eight years in 
the Indies, having come with Ovando, in 1502, he was admitted 
to priestly orders, from which time he takes his place in 
history. He was a man of very pronounced temperament and 
faculties ; as much man of business as ecclesiastic, but more 
philanthropist than either; possessed of a burning enthusiasm, 
when once the fire of his conviction was fairly kindled, he gave 
rest neither to himself nor his enemies, for every evil-minded 
man who came hither was his enemy, between whom and him- 
self was a death struggle. The Apostle of the Indies he was 
sometimes called, and the mission he took upon himself was 
to stand between the naked natives and their steel-clad tor- 
mentors. In this work he was ardent, ofttimes imprudent, 
always eloquent and truthful, and as bold as any cavalier 
among them all. Nor was he by any means a discontented 
man. He sought nothing for himself; he had nothing that 
man could take from him except life, upon which he set no 



A DEVOTED PHILANTHROPIST. 367 

value, or except some of its comforts, which were too poor at 
best to trouble himself about. His cause, which was the right, 
gave breadth and volume to his boldness, beside which the 
courage of the hair-brained babbler was sounding brass. 

" In the occupation of Cuba, Panfilo de Narvaez was named 
by Velazquez his lieutenant, and sent forth to subjugate other 
parts of the island. With Narvaez went Las Casas, who put 
forth almost superhuman exertions, in vain, to stay the merciless 
slaughter of the helpless and innocent. A warm friend of Las 
Casas was Velazquez' Alcalde, Pedro de Renteria, who, in the 
division of the spoils joined Las Casas in accepting a large 
tract of land, and a proportionate repartimiento of Indians. This 
was before Las Casas had seriously considered the matter, and 
he was at first quite delighted with his acquisition. But the 
enormity of the wrong coming upon him, his conversion was 
as decisive as that of St. Paul. 

" Like the Dominicans of Espanola, Las Casas began by 
preaching against repartimientos. In 1 5 1 5 he sailed for Spain, 
in company with Montesino, leaving his charge with certain 
monks sent over from Espanola by the prelate Cordoba. 
These Dominican brothers did what they could, but to such 
straits were the savages driven, after the departure of Las 
Casas, that to escape the bloodhounds and other evils sent 
upon them by the Spaniards, thousands of them took refuge 
in suicide. When Diego Colon arrived, in 1509, there were 
left in Espanola forty thousand natives. A repartidor was 
appointed, in the person of Rodrigo de Albuquerque, to re- 
partition the Indians, but when he arrived, in 15 14, there were 
but thirteen thousand left to divide. After proclaiming himself 
with great pomp, Albuquerque plainly intimated that bribery 
was in order, that he who paid the most money should have 
the best repartimiento. Afterwards the Licentiate Ibarra, sent 
to Espanola to take the residence of the Alcalde Aguilar, was 
authorized to make a new partition. Large numbers of the 
natives were given to the king's favorites in Spain, and the 
evil grew apace." 



368 INTEGRITY. 

A NOBLE FRIEND OF FREEDOM. 



GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS. 



He stood upon the world's broad threshold ; wide 

The din of battle and of slaughter rose ; 
He saw God stand upon the weaker side, 

That sank in seeming loss before its foes. 
Many there were who made great haste, and sold 

Unto the cunning enemy their swords. 
He scorned their gifts of fame and power, and gold, 

And underneath their soft and flowery words 
Heard the cold serpent hiss : therefore, he went 

And humbly joined him to the weaker part, 
Fanatic named and fool, yet well content 

So he could be the nearer to God's heart, 
And feel its solemn pulses sending blood 
Through all the widespread veins of endless good. 

James Russell Lowell. 




O nobler friend of freedom and of man 
than Wendell Phillips ever breathed upon 
this continent, and no man's service to free- 
dom surpasses his. But before the war 
he demanded peaceful disunion ; yet it was 
the Union in arms that saved Liberty. 
During the war he would have superseded 
Lincoln ; but it was Lincoln who freed the 
the slaves. He pleaded for Ireland, tortured by centuries of 
misrule, and while every generous heart followed with sympathy 
the pathos and the power of his appeal, the just mind recoiled 
from the sharp arraignment of the truest friends in England that 
Ireland ever had. I know it all ; and I know also, and history 
will remember, that the slave Union which he denounced is 
dissolved ; that it was the heart and conscience of the nation, 
exalted by his moral appeal of agitation, as well as by the 
enthusiasm of patriotic war, which held up the hands of 



A NOBLE FRIEND OF FREEDOM. 369 

Lincoln, and upon which Lincoln leaned in emancipating the 
slaves ; and that only by indignant and aggressive appeals like 
his has the heart of England ever opened to Irish wrong. 

I am not here to declare that the judgment of Wendell 
Phillips was always sound, nor his estimate of men always 
just, nor his policy always approved by the event. He would 
have scorned such praise. I am not here to eulogize the 
mortal, but the immortal. He, too, was a great American 
patriot ; and no American life, no, not one, offers to future 
generations of his countrymen a more priceless example of 
inflexible fidelity to conscience and to public duty; and no 
American more truly than he purged the national name of its 
shame, and made the American flag the flag of hope for 
mankind. 

Among her noblest children his native city will cherish him, 
and gratefully recall the unbending Puritan soul that dwelt in 
a form so gracious and urbane. The plain house in which he 
lived — severely plain, because the welfare of the suffering and 
the slave were preferred to book and picture, and every fair 
device of art ; the house to which the North Star led the 
trembling fugitive, and which the unfortunate and the friend- 
less knew; the radiant figure passing swiftly through these 
streets, plain as the house from which it came, regal with a 
royalty beyond that of kings ; the ceaseless charity untold; 
the strong sustaining heart of private friendship ; the sacred 
domestic affection that must not here be named ; the eloquence 
which, like the song of Orpheus, will fade from living memory 
into a doubtful tale ; that great scene of his youth in Faneuil 
Hall; the surrender of ambition; the mighty agitation and 
the mighty triumph with which his name is forever blended ; 
the consecration of a life hidden with God in sympathy with 
man; these, all these, will live among your immortal tra- 
ditions, heroic even in your heroic story. But not yours 
alone. As years go by, and only the large outlines of lofty 
American characters and careers remain, the wide republic 
will confess the benediction of a life like this, and gladly own 
24 



370 



INTEGRITY. 



that if, with perfect faith and hope assured, America would 
still stand and "bid the distant generations hail," the inspira- 
tion of her national life must be the sublime moral courage, 
the all-embracing humanity, the spotless integrity, the abso- 
lutely unselfish devotion of great powers to great public ends, 
which were the glory of Wendell Phillips. 



FABRICIUS AND KING PYRRHUS. 



Speech of Fabricius, a Roman ambassador, B. C. 282, to King Pyrrhus, who attempted to 
bribe him to his interests, by the offer of a great sum of money. 




ITH regard to my poverty, the king has, 
indeed, been justly informed. My whole 
estate consists in a house of but mean 
appearance and a little spot of ground, 
from which, by my own labor, I draw my 
support. But if, by any means, thou hast 
been persuaded to think that this poverty 
renders me of less consequence in my 
own country, or in any degree unhappy, thou art greatly de- 
ceived. I have no reason to complain of fortune ; she supplies me 
with all that nature requires ; and if I am without superfluities, 
I am also free from the desires of them. With these, I confess, 
I should be more able to succor the necessitous, the only 
advantage for which the wealthy are to be envied ; but small 
as my possessions are, I can still contribute something to the 
support of the State and the assistance of my friends. With 
respect to honors, my country places me, poor as I am, upon 
a level with the richest; for Rome knows no qualifications for 
great employments but virtue and ability. She appoints me 
to officiate in the most august ceremonies of religion; she 
intrusts me with the command of her armies ; she confides to 
my care the most important negotiations. My poverty does 
not lessen the weight and influence of my counsels in the 



THE EARL Y CHRISTIANS. 



371 



Senate. The Roman people honor me for that very poverty 
which King Pyrrhus considers as a disgrace. They know the 
many opportunities I have had to enrich myself, without cen- 
sure ; they are convinced of my disinterested zeal for their 
prosperity ; and if I have any thing to complain of, in the 
return they make me, it is only the excess of their applause. 
What value, then, can I put upon thy gold and silver? What 
king can add anything to my fortune ? Always attentive to 
discharge the duties incumbent upon me, I have a mind free 
from self-reproach ; and I have an honest fame. 



THE EARLY CHRISTIANS, 



EDWARD GIBBON. 




HEN the Christians of Bithynia were brought 
before the tribunal of the younger Pliny, 
they assured the proconsul that, far from 
being engaged in any unlawful conspiracy, 
they were bound by a solemn obligation 
to abstain from the commission of those 
crimes which disturb the private or public 
peace of society, from theft, robbery, 
adultery, perjury and fraud. 
Near a century afterwards, Tertullian, with an honest pride, 
could boast that very few (if any) Christians had suffered by 
the hand of the executioner, except on account of their reli- 
gion. Their serious and sequestered life, averse to the gay 
luxury of the age, inured them to chastity, temperance, 
economy and all the sober, domestic virtues. As the greater 
number were of some trade or profession, it was incumbent 
upon them, by the strictest integrity and the fairest dealing, to 
remove the suspicions which the profane are too apt to con- 
ceive against the appearance of sanctity. The contempt of the 



372 INTEGRITY. 

world exercises them in the habits of humility, meekness and 
patience. The more they were persecuted, the more closely 
they adhered to each other. Their mutual charity and un- 
suspecting confidence has been marked by infidels, and was 
too often abused by perfidious friends. 



NOBLE PEASANTS. 




MONG the Alps alone, are found men, rustic 
without being ferocious, civilized without being 
corrupted. The following trait is as character- 
istic as it is singular. Frantz went one evening 
to Gaspard, who was mowing his field: "My 
friend," said he, "the time is come to get up 
this hay ; you know there is a dispute about the 
meadow — to whom it belongs, you or me ; to 
decide the question, I have assembled together 
the appointed judges, at Salenche; so, come with me, to-morrow, 
and state your claims." " You see, Frantz," answered Gaspard, 
"that I have cut the grass; and it is, therefore, absolutely 
necessary that I should get it up to-morrow ; I cannot leave 
it." "And I cannot send away the judges, who have chosen 
the day themselves ; besides, we must know to whom the 
meadow belongs before it can be cleared." They debated for 
some time. At length, Gaspard said to Frantz, " Go to Sa- 
lenche; tell the judges my reasons as well as your own, for 
claiming the meadow, and then I need not- go myself." So it 
was agreed. Frantz pleaded both for and against himself, and 
to the best of his power gave in his claims and those of Gas- 
pard. When the judges had pronounced their opinion, he 
returned to his friend, saying, " The meadow is thine ; the 
sentence is in thy favor, and I wish you joy." Frantz and 
Gaspard ever afterward remained firm friends. 

— The World of Anecdote. 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT AND ABDOLONYMUS. 37o 
ALEXANDER THE GREAT AND ABDOLONYMUS. 



QUINTUS CURTIUS. 




I HE city of Sidon having surrendered to Alex- 
ander, 333 B. C, he ordered Hephestion to 
bestow the crown on him whom the Sidon- 
ians should think most worthy of that honor. 
Hephestion being at that time resident with 
two young men of distinction, offered them 
the kingdom ; but they refused it, telling him 
that it was contrary to the laws of their 
country to admit any one to that honor who was not of the 
royal family. He then, having expressed his admiration of 
their disinterested spirit, desired them to name one of the royal 
race, who might remember that he had received the crown 
through their hands. Overlooking many who would have 
been ambitious of this high honor, they made choice of 
Abdolonymus, whose singular merit had rendered him con- 
spicuous, even in the vale of obscurity. Though remotely 
related to the royal family, a series of misfortunes had reduced 
him to the necessity of cultivating a garden, for a small stipend, 
in the suburbs of the city. 

While Abdolonymus was busily employed in weeding his 
garden, the two friends of Hephestion, bearing in their hands 
the ensigns of royalty, approached him and saluted him king. 
They informed him that Alexander had appointed him to that 
office, and required him immediately to exchange his rustic 
garb and utensils of husbandry for the regal robe and sceptre. 
At the same time, they admonished him, when he should be 
seated on the throne and have' a nation in his power, not to 
forget the humble condition from which he had been raised. 

All this, at the first, appeared to Abdolonymus as an illusion 
of the fancy, or an insult offered to his poverty. He requested 
them not to trouble him further with their impertinent jests; 



374 INTEGRITY. 

and to find some other way of amusing themselves, which 
might leave him in the peaceable enjoyment of his obscure 
habitation. At length, however, they convinced him that they 
were serious in their proposal, and prevailed upon him to 
accept the regal office and accompany them to the palace. 

No sooner was he in possession of the government, than 
pride and envy created him enemies, who whispered their 
murmurs in every place, till at last they reached the ear of 
Alexander. He commanded the new-elected prince to be sent 
for, and inquired of him, with what temper of mind he had 
borne his poverty. " Would to heaven," replied Abdolonymus, 
" that I may be able to bear my crown with equal moderation ; 
for when I possessed little, I wanted nothing; these hands sup- 
plied me with whatever I desired." From this answer, Alex- 
ander formed so high an idea of his wisdom, that he confirmed 
the choice which had been made ; and annexed a neighboring 
province to the government of Sidon. 




MAGNANIMITY, 




» With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the 
right, as God gives us to see the right." 

— Abraham JAncoln. 



PART VII. 



MAGNANIMITY. 



THE BEST KIND OF REVENGE. 




WILLIAM CHAMBERS. 



OME years ago a warehouseman in Man- 
chester, England, published a scurrilous 
pamphlet, in which he endeavored to hold 
up the house of Grant Brothers to ridicule. 
William Grant remarked upon the occur- 
rence that the man would live to repent 
what he had done ; and this was conveyed 
by some tale-bearer to the libeller, who said, 
"O, I suppose he thinks I shall some time or other be in his 
debt ; but I will take good care of that." It happens, how- 
ever, that a man in business cannot always choose who shall 
be his creditors. The pamphleteer became a bankrupt, and 
the brothers held an acceptance of his which had been endorsed 
to them by the drawer, who had also become a bankrupt. 

The wantonly libelled men had thus become creditors of 
the libeller ! They now had it in their power to make him 
repent of his audacity. He could not obtain his certificate 
without their signature, and without it he could not enter into 
business again. He had obtained the number of signatures 

377 



378 MAGNANIMITY. 

required by the bankrupt law, except one. It seemed folly to 
hope that the firm of " the brothers " would supply the 
deficiency. What! they, who had cruelly been made the 
laughing-stock of the public, forget the wrong, and favor the 
wrong-doer? He despaired. But the claims of a wife and of 
children forced him at last to make the application. Humbled 
by misery, he presented himself at the counting-house of the 
wronged. 

Mr. William Grant was there alone, and his first words to 
the delinquent were, " Shut the door, sir ! " sternly uttered. 
The door was shut, and the libeller stood trembling before the 
libelled. He told his tale, and produced his certificate, which 
was instantly clutched by the injured merchant. " You wrote 
a pamphlet against us once!" exclaimed Mr. Grant. The 
supplicant expected to see his parchment thrown into the fire. 
But this was not its destination. Mr. Grant took a pen, and 
writing something upon the document, handed it back to the 
bankrupt. He, poor wretch, expected to see " rogue, scoundrel, 
libeller," inscribed ; but there was, in fair, round characters, 
the signature of the firm. 

" We make it a rule," said Mr. Grant, " never to refuse 
signing the certificate of an honest tradesman, and we have 
never heard that you were anything else." The tears started 
into the poor man's eyes. " Ah," said Mr. Grant, " my saying 
was true ! I said you would live to repent writing that 
pamphlet. I did not mean it as a threat. I only meant that 
some day you would know us better, and be sorry you had 
tried to injure us. I see you repent of it now." " I do, I 
do!" said the grateful man. "I bitterly repent it." "Well, 
my dear fellow, you know us now. How do you get on ? 
What are you going to do ? " The poor man stated that he 
had friends who could assist him when his certificate was 
obtained. " But how are you off in the meantime ? " His 
answer was, that, having given up every farthing to his 
creditors, he had been compelled to stint his family of even 
common necessities, that he might be enabled to pay the cost 



THE SOLDIER'S PARDON. 



379 



of his certificate. " My dear fellow, this will not do ; your 
family must not suffer. Be kind enough to take this ten-pound 
note to your wife, from me. There, there, my dear fellow ! Nay, 
don't cry ; it will be all well with you yet. Keep up your 
spirits, set to work like a man, and you will raise your head 
among us yet." The overpowered man endeavored in vain to 
express his thanks ; the swelling in his throat forbade words. 
He put his handkerchief to his face, and went out of the door 
crying like a child. 



THE SOLDIER'S PARDON. 




JAMES SMITH. 



SjpSvpILD blew the gale in Gibraltar one night, 






As a soldier lay stretched in his cell ; 
And anon, 'mid the darkness, the moon's silver light 

On his countenance dreamily fell. 
Nought could she reveal, but a man, true as steel, 

That oft for his country had bled, 
And the glance of his eye might the grim king defy, 

For despair, fear and trembling had fled. 

But in rage he had struck a well-merited blow 

At a tyrant who held him in scorn ; 
And his fate soon was sealed, for alas ! honest Joe 

Was to die on the following morn. 
Oh ! sad was the thought to a man that had fought 

'Mid the ranks of the gallant and brave — 
To be shot through the breast, at a coward's behest, 

And laid low in a criminal's grave ! 

The night-call had sounded, when Joe was aroused 

By a step at the door of his cell ; 
'Twas a comrade with whom he had often caroused, 

That now entered, to bid him farewell. 
" Ah, Tom ! is it you, come to bid me adieu ? 

'Tis kind, my lad! give me your hand ! 
Nay — nay — don't get wild, man, and make me a child ! 

I'll be soon in a happier land !" 



380 MAGNANIMITY. 

With hands clasped in silence, Tom mournfully said, 
" Have you any request, Joe, to make ? 
Remember, by me 'twill be fully obeyed ; 
Can I anything do for your sake ?" 
" When it's over, to-morrow !" he said, filled with sorrow, 
" Send this token to her whom I've sworn 
All my fond love to share !" — 'twas a lock of his hair, 
And a prayer-book all faded and worn. 

" Here's this watch for my mother; and when you write home, 

And he dashed a bright tear from his eye — 
" Say I died with my heart in old Devonshire, Tom, 
Like a man and a soldier ! — Good bye !" 
Then the sergeant on guard at the grating appeared, 

And poor Tom had to leave the cold cell, 
By the moon's waning light, with a husky " Good night ! 
God be with you, dear comrade ! — farewell !" 

Gray dawned the morn in a dull, cloudy sky, 

When the blast of a bugle resounded ; 
And Joe, ever fearless, went forward to die, 
By the hearts of true heroes surrounded. 
" Shoulder arms" was the cry, as the prisoner passed by ; 
" To the right about — march !" was the word ; 
And their pale faces proved how their comrade was loved, 
And by all his brave regiment adored. 

Right onward they marched to the dread field of doom ; 

Sternly silent, they covered the ground ; 
Then they formed into line, amid sadness and gloom, 

While the prisoner looked calmly around. 
Then soft on the air rose the accents of prayer, 

And faint tolled the solemn death-bell, 
As he knelt on the sand, and with uplifted hand, 

Waved the long and the lasting farewell. 

" Make ready !" exclaimed an imperious voice ; 

" Present !" struck a chill on each mind ; 

Ere the last word was spoke, Joe had cause to rejoice 

For " Hold — hold !" cried a voice from behind. 
Then wild was the joy of them all, man and boy, 

As a horseman cried, " Mercy ! Forbear !" 

With a thrilling " Hurrah ! a free pardon ! huzzah !" 

And the muskets rung loud in the air. 



PAGANINI AND THE STREET PLA YER. 381 

Soon the comrades were locked in each other's embrace ; 

No more stood the brave soldiers dumb ; 
With a loud cheer, they wheeled to the right-about face, 

Then away at the sound of the drum ! 
And a brighter day dawned in sweet Devon's fair land, 

Where the lovers met, never to part ; 
And he gave her a token — true, warm and unbroken — 

The gift of his own gallant heart ! 



PAGANINI AND THE STREET PLAYER. 




MONG the pleasant stories told of Paganini is one 
similar to an incident previously related of 
Viotti. One day, as he was walking in Vienna, 
the violinist saw a poor little Italian boy scraping 
some Neapolitan songs before the windows of a 
large house. A celebrated artist who accom- 
panied Paganini remarked to him, " There is 
one of your compatriots." Upon which the 
maestro evinced a desire to speak to the lad, and went across 
the street to him for that purpose. After ascertaining 
that he was a poor beggar boy from the other side of 
the Alps, and that he supported his sick mother, his only 
relative, the great violinist appeared touched. He literally 
emptied his pockets into the boy's hand, and taking the 
violin and bow from him, began the most grotesque and 
extraordinary performance possible. A crowd soon collected, 
the virtuoso was at once recognized by the bystanders, and 
when he brought the performance to an end, amid the cheers 
and shouts of those assembled, he handed around the boy's 
hat, and made a considerable collection of coin, in which silver 
pieces were very conspicuous. He then handed the sum to 
the young Italian, saying, " Take that to your mother," and 
rejoining his companion, walked off with him, saying, "I hope 
I've done a good turn to that little animal." 

— The Great Violinists. 



382 MAGNANIMITY. 

HADRIAN AND THE PLANTER. 




1 HE Emperor Hadrian, passing near Tiberias, 
? in Galilee, observed an old man digging a 



large trench, in order to plant some fig trees. 
" Hadst thou properly employed the morn- 
ing of thy life," said Hadrian, "thou needest 
not have worked so hard in the evening of 
thy days." " I have well employed my early 
days, nor will I neglect the evening of my 
life, and let God do with me what he thinks best," replied the 
old man. " How old mayest thou be, good man?" asked the 
emperor. " A hundred years," was the reply. " What ! " ex- 
claimed Hadrian, "a hundred years old, and still planting 
trees ? Canst thou, then, hope ever to enjoy the fruits of thy 
labor ? " " Great king," rejoined the hoary-headed man, " yes, 
I do hope, if God permits, that I may even eat the fruits of 
these very trees ; if not, my children will. Have not my fore- 
fathers planted trees for me, and shall I not do the same for 
my children ? " Hadrian, pleased with the honest man's reply, 
said, " Well, old man, if ever thou livest to see the fruit of 
these trees, let me know it. Dost thou hear, good old man ? " 
And with these words he left him. 

The old man did live long enough to see the fruits of his 
industry. The trees flourished and bore excellent fruit. As 
soon as they were sufficiently ripe, he gathered the most 
choice figs, put them in a basket, and marched toward the 
emperor's residence. Hadrian happened to look out of the 
window of his palace, and seeing a man bent with age, with a 
basket on his shoulders, standing near the gate, he ordered 
him to be admitted to his presence. " What is thy pleasure, 
old man ?" demanded Hadrian. " May it please your Majesty," 
replied the man, " to recollect seeing once a very old man 
planting some trees, and desiring him, if ever he should gather 
the fruit, to let you know ; I am that old man, and this is the 



GENEROSITY OF BERMUDO, I. 383 

fruit of those very trees. May it please you graciously to 
accept them as an humble tribute for your Majesty's great 
condescension." Hadrian, gratified to see so extraordinary an 
instance of longevity, accompanied by the full manly faculties 
and honest exertion, desired the old man to be seated, and 
ordering the basket to be emptied of the fruit and to be filled 
with gold, gave it to him as a present. Some courtiers, who 
witnessed this uncommon scene, exclaimed, " Is it possible 
that our great Emperor should show so much honor to a Jew ?" 
" Why should I not honor him whom God has honored ?" 
replied Hadrian. " Look at his age and imitate his example." 

— Anonymous. 



GENEROSITY OF BERMUDO, I. 




FTER the death of Mauregate, Bermudo, I, al- 
though an ecclesiastic, was elected King of 
Spain. His conduct presents a romantic instance 
of magnanimity. Scarcely had he ascended the 
throne, when he invited to his court and his 
counsels the legitimate king, Alphonso, II; he 
succeeded in dissipating the prejudices enter- 
tained against this prince by the nobles, en- 
trusted to him the command of the army, and having accom- 
panied Alphonso in an engagement in which the latter 
defeated the Moors, he seized that moment to resign the 
crown, and cause him to be elected in his stead. Alphonso, 
worthy of the conduct of this magnanimous man, did not 
suffer himself to be surpassed by him in generosity. He 
would not permit Bermudo to retire to his monastic retreat ; 
he gave him an apartment in the royal palace, consulted him 
in all State affairs, showed him the same respect and affection 
as if Bermudo had still been king, and having no issue, 
bequeathed the crown to Ramiro, the worthy son of Bermudo. 
The priests who have awarded a sort of apotheosis to so many 



384 MA GNANIMIT Y. 

demi-saints and so many impostors, have forgotten, or igno- 
rantly passed over, the august names of Alphonso and Bermudo, 
knowing no better than to attribute the magnanimity of the 
latter to monastic scruples relative to the marriage which he 
had contracted, and having taken upon himself the vow of 
celibacy as a deacon. — De Liagno's Repertory of Spanish 
History. 

NOTHING COMES BY CHANCE. 




[HERE is a beautiful story in French, of a 
prisoner who became exceedingly attached 
to a flower. He was put in prison, by order 
of Napoleon, because he was supposed to be 
an enemy of the Government. One day, as 
Charney (for that was his name) was walk- 
ing in the yard adjoining his cell, he saw a 
plant pushing up between the stones. How 
it came there, he could not tell. Perhaps some one carelessly 
dropped the seed, or perhaps the seed was blown over the wall 
by the wind. He knew not what plant it was, but he felt a 
great interest in it. Shut in within those walls, away from all 
his friends, not permitted to interest himself with either read- 
ing or writing, he was glad to have this little living thing to 
watch over and love. Every day when he walked in the 
court, he spent much time in looking at it. He soon saw some 
buds. He watched them as they grew larger and larger, and 
longed to see them open. And when the flowers at length 
came out, he was filled with joy. They were very beautiful. 
They had three colors in them — white, purple and rose color — 
and there was a delicate silvery fringe all round the edge. 
Their fragrance, too, was delicious. Charney examined them 
more than he ever did flowers before, and never did flowers 
look so beautiful to him as these. Charney guarded his plant 
from all harm, with great care. He made a framework out of 



NOTHING COMES BY CHANCE. 385 

such things as he could get, so that it should not be broken 
down by some careless foot or by the wind. One day there 
was a hail storm, and to keep his tender plant from the pelting of 
the hail, he stood bending over it as long as the storm lasted. 

The plant was something more than a pleasure and a com- 
fort to the prisoner. It taught him some things that he had 
never learned before, though he was a very wise man. When 
he went into the prison he was an infidel. He did not believe 
there was a God, and among his scribblings on the prison 
wall, he had written, " All things come by chance." But as 
he watched his loved flower, its opening beauties told him 
that there was a God. He felt that none but God could make 
that flower ; and he said that the flower had taught him more 
than he had ever learned from the wise men of the earth. 

The cherished and guarded plant proved to be of great ser- 
vice to the prisoner. It was the means of his being set free. 
There was another prisoner, an Italian, whose daughter came 
to visit him. She was much interested by the tender care 
which Charney took of his plant. At one time it seemed as 
if it were going to die, and Charney felt very sad. He wished 
that he could take up the stones around it, but he could not, 
without permission. The Italian girl managed to see the Em- 
press Josephine, and to tell her about it, and permission was 
given to Charney to do with the plant as he desired. The 
stones were taken up, and the earth was loosened, and the 
flower was soon as bright as ever again. 

Now Josephine thought much of flowers. It is said that 
she admired the purple of her cactuses more than the imperial 
purple of her robe, and that the perfume of her magnolias was 
pleasanter to her than the flattery of her attendants. She, too, 
had a cherished flower — the sweet jessamine — that she had 
brought from the home of her youth, a far-off island of the 
West Indies. This had been planted and reared by her own 
hand; and though its simple beauty would scarcely have 
excited the attention of a stranger, it was dearer to her than 
all the rare and brilliant flowers that filled her hot-houses. 
25 



386 MAGNANIMITY. 

She thought a good deal, therefore, of the prisoner that took 
such good care of his one flower. She inquired about him, 
and after a little time persuaded the Emperor to give him his 
freedom. And when Charney left the prison he took the 
plant with him to his home, for he could not bear to part with 
this sweet companion that had cheered him in his lonely 
prison life, taught him such lessons of wisdom, and was at last 
the means of setting him free. 

Some perhaps would say that the seed of this flower got 
into that prison yard and took root in the earth between the 
stones by chance, and that this was all very lucky for the 
prisoner. But this is not so. Nothing comes by chance. 
God sent that seed there and made it lodge in the right place 
to have it grow. He sent it to do great things for the poor 
prisoner. Little did Charney think when he saw that tiny 
plant first pushing up from between the stones, that by it God 
would free him from prison, and what was better, deliver him 
from infidelity. — Anonymous. 

THE HERMIT AND THE MINSTREL. 




MRS. ANNA JAMESON. 



CERTAIN holy anchorite had passed a long life 
in a cave of the Thebiad, remote from all com- 
munion with men ; and eschewing, as he would 
the gates of hell, even the very presence of a 
woman; and he fasted and prayed, and per- 
formed many and severe penances; and his 
whole thought was how he should make himself 
of account in the sight of God, that he might 
enter into his paradise. And having lived this life three- 
score and ten years, he was puffed up with the notion of his 
own great virtue and sanctity, and, like to St. Anthony, he 
besought the Lord to show him what saint he should emu- 
late as greater than himself, thinking, perhaps, in his heart, 



THE HERMIT AND THE MINSTREL. 387 

that the Lord would answer that none was greater or holier. 
And the same night he had a dream, and the angel of God 
appeared to him, and said, " If thou wouldst excel all others 
in virtue and sanctity, thou must strive to be like a certain 
minstrel who goes begging and singing from door to door." 
And the holy man was in great astonishment, and he arose 
and took his staff, and ran forth in search of this minstrel; and 
when he had found him, he questioned him earnestly, saying, 
"Tell me, I pray thee, good brother, what good works thou 
hast performed in thy lifetime, and by what prayers and 
penances thou hast made thyself acceptable to God?" And 
the man, greatly wondering and ashamed to be questioned, 
hung down his head, as he replied, "I beseech thee, holy 
father, mock me not! I have performed no good works, and 
as to praying, alas ! — sinner that I am — I am not worthy to 
pray. I do nothing but go about from door to door, amusing 
the people with my viol and my flute." And the holy man 
insisted, and said, "Nay, but peradventure in the midst of this 
thy evil life, thou hast done some good works ? " And the 
minstrel replied, " I know of nothing good that I have done." 
And the hermit, wondering more and more, said, "How hast 
thou become a beggar? Hast thou spent thy substance in 
riotous living, like most others of thy calling ? " And the man, 
answering, said, " Nay, but there was a poor woman, whom I 
found running hither and thither in distraction, for her husband 
and children had been sold into slavery to pay a debt. And 
the woman being very fair, certain sons of Belial pursued after 
her; so I took her home to my hut, and protected her from 
them ; and I gave her all I possessed, to redeem her family, 
and conducted her in safety to the city, where she was reunited 
to her husband and children. But what of that, my father; is 
there a man who would not have done the same ? " And the 
hermit, hearing the minstrel speak these words, wept bitterly, 
saying, " For my part, I have not done so much good in all 
my life ; and yet they call me a man of God, and thou art only 
a poor minstrel ! " 



388 MAGNANIMITY. 

THE FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY AND THE 
YANKEE BOY. 




>LD Parson Hale, whom I used to hear preach 
when I was a little fellow, said Grandfather 
Marvin, was never weary of telling us 
children the incidents of a visit he and his 
mother made to Virginia when he was a 
lad. The long ride, by private carriage, from 
Massachusetts Bay to the Potomac River, 
was indeed a pleasurable and exciting jour- 
ney, and the meeting with General Washington was the event 
of events. 

The General was at that time living in dignified re- 
tirement, upon his large estate at Mount Vernon, which 
consisted of ten thousand acres of land in one body. 
Nearly a third of it formed a neck on the Potomac River, 
with Huntington Creek Bay on the east and Donge 
Creek Bay on the west. There were two grist mills on 
the estate, one driven by oxen or horses and the other 
by water. 

Parson Hale's uncle, William Barker, was, at the time of 
his notable visit, overseer of the water-power mill, which stood 
at the head of Donge Creek Bay. 

It was quite a large mill, with a twelve-foot wheel, the water 
coming through a sluice-way two miles long. Boats laden 
with grain came close up to the mill door. 

The estate was divided into several different farms, each 
farm being devoted to the raising of grasses, grain and vege- 
tables, just like any other farm, only everything was on such 
a large scale. There were hundreds of acres of land in each 
field, and nearly four hundred men were employed all the year 
round. 

General Washington had the personal oversight of these 



WASHINGTON AND THE YANKEE BOY. 389 

extensive farming operations, and rode about the fields and 
farms, on horseback, every morning, in pleasant weather. 

Often gentlemen who were his visitors, and sometimes ladies, 
accompanied him on these rides. Their horses were trained 
for the saddle, and made nothing of leaping across the broad, 
deep ditches which separated the large fields, instead of 

fences. 

Young Matthew Hale had been at the mill several days 
without getting a glimpse of the great man, whom, of course, 
he was very anxious and curious to see. So one day his uncle 
sent him to the " Brick Barn," on a grain boat, telling him 
that he would be sure to see the famous General in that 
vicinity. 

Matthew found the barn to be situated at a distance of 
about three miles from Mount Vernon residence. It was a 
huge structure, built of brick, and was considered a great 
curiosity, being sixteen square, or double octagonal. 

The lad was looking about him with the eager desire to 
know " the why and wherefore " of everything — an impulse 
that has always characterized the wide-awake New England 
boy wherever he goes — when some one shouted to him that 
the General was coming. 

As young Matthew ran out of the barn, he saw, galloping 
at a swift pace over the newly mowed and beautifully undulat- 
ing meadow, a dozen or more gaily dressed ladies and gentle- 
men on horseback. They were all finely mounted, and a 
number of sleek, handsome dogs ran gracefully on either side 
of the brilliant cavalcade. 

The little Massachusetts boy was so overawed and confused 
by the picturesqueness and grandeur of the sight and the 
majesty of the great General's presence, that he followed his 
first inclination, which was to run behind a corner of the 
immense barn, near which he was standing, thinking he could 
look out from that -point of safety and see the company sweep 
by, himself remaining unobserved. 

Upon his starting to run, a fierce little dog rushed away 



390 MAGNANIMITY. 

from the party and flew, yelping, after him. The boy ran on, 
and the dog followed in hot pursuit. Soon, the frightened 
boy became conscious that not only the dog, but a flying 
horseman, was also pursuing him. 

Matthew had no idea of the extent of one side of that 
sixteen-sided barn, but it seemed a long distance for his short 
legs to accomplish. He looked back each time he turned a 
corner, to see the head of a white horse appearing at the corner 
behind him. 

He supposed the General considered him an intruder, and 
was determined to take him into custody. Not knowing what 
fearful fate awaited him, should he be caught, he exerted every 
nerve to escape, still turning corner after corner, the dog in hot 
pursuit, the horseman close behind. 

Almost ready to drop from fatigue, shame and terror, the 
poor lad turned another corner, only to find himself directly 
in front of the mounted party, who were drawn up near the 
wide-open doors, where heaps of grain were being measured 
before it should be transferred to the boat. 

Here, he was brought to a stand- still by an authoritative 
command of " Halt ! " It was but one word, and that not 
loudly spoken, but that there was power in the voice was 
evident by the alacrity with which it was obeyed by both pur- 
suer and pursued. 

The dreaded horseman, whom Matthew now saw in full 
view, was a lad not much older than himself, mounted on a 
pretty white pony. 

" What does this mean, Dandridge ? " inquired General 
Washington, in severe tones. 

" Madge always runs after anything that tries to run away 
from her, uncle; and I only thought I would see the chase 
out," exclaimed the boy, in a voice that quivered, and with a 
perturbed air. 

" And who are you, my lad, and what da you want here ? " 
asked the General, in a softened tone, turning to Matthew, who 
was trembling from head to foot. 



WASHINGTON AND THE YANKEE BOY. 3Q1 

" I am Matthew Hale, sir, from Massachusetts," said our 
Yankee boy, not forgetting, in his excitement, to remove his 
hat and to make a graceful bow. " I came on with my mother, 
to visit my uncle Barker, who lives at the Donge Creek mill ; 
and I am here at the " Brick Barn " to see the Father of my 
Country." 

" Thank you, my boy," said the General, very kindly. " I 
am always proud and happy to see my Massachusetts friends. 
You must come and call at Mount Vernon to-morrow after- 
noon. I shall be at home at two o'clock." 

And, lifting his hat, the General rode away, followed by the 
whole party. 

The Old Parson used to say that the chase around that six- 
teen-sided brick barn, when he supposed General Washington, 
mounted on his white charger, was behind him, was a terrible 
experience. It had its abundant compensation, for he went to 
Mount Vernon at the time appointed, when the General 
received him very cordially, asked him a great many questions 
about his studies and what he read, and inquired kindly and 
particularly about his family. 

Upon learning that Matthew's father had died of a wound 
received in the Revolutionary War, Washington manifested a 
new interest in the lad, asked to see his widowed mother 
when next he went to the mill, and befriended them both in 
many ways. 

As soon as the lad was old enough, he was sent by the 
General to the academy at Alexandria, where he remained for 
several years. 

General Washington paid an annuity to this institution for 
the support of orphans for many years, during his lifetime, and 
at his death left a fund of five thousand dollars for the same 
purpose. 

So the chase around that sixteen-sided barn resulted in the 
Yankee lad's being educated as a clergyman — one who did 
effective work in his own field of labor, and died greatly 
lamented and respected. — Golden Days. 



392 MAGNANIMITY. 

A PHILANTHROPIC PASTOR. 




LIFE full of interest, instruction and sweet Chris- 
tian philanthropy is that of the renowned and 
honored German clergyman, Theodor Fliedner. 
He was born at Eppstein, Rhenish Prussia, 
in the year 1800, and in the year 1822 became 
pastor of the congregation at Kaiserwerth, to 
which his good father had ministered until his 
death, in 1 8 1 3. Soon after his settlement, his 
people were suddenly impoverished by the fail- 
ure of a large manufacturing firm which had employed most 
of them. Refusing to take another charge, he set himself to 
the task of relieving his poverty-stricken people, and visited 
the philanthropic institutions of other countries, to study the 
best methods of beginning his work. After an extended tour 
he returned to Kaiserwerth and founded an institution for the 
relief of the poor, the sick and the fallen. Several years later 
he founded a society for the improvement of prison discipline, 
and, in 1833, an asylum for discharged female convicts. 

This latter was on a small scale, consisting only of his sum- 
mer house in his garden, which soon proved too small, and 
was exchanged for a more substantial edifice. His next and 
grandest idea was to re-establish the office of the ministry of 
women in the Protestant Church. He found sufficient warrant 
for this step in Romans, xvi, in the beginning of which the 
great Apostle to the Gentiles commands " Phcebe, our sister, 
which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea: That 
ye receive her in the Lord as becometh saints, and that ye 
assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you; for 
she hath been a succorer of many, and of myself also." 

The office of deaconess existed in the Eastern Church as late 
as the eighth century, and it is quite uncertain when it entirely 
disappeared there, although in most of the Latin churches it 
had fallen into disuse in the fifth century. In later times its 
place was taken by various organizations and orders in the 



A PHILANTHROPIC PASTOR. 393 

Catholic church, whose self-denying and devoted ministrations 
of charity, mercy and consolation have been a blessing to 
myriads of the needy, sick and fallen. Several attempts were 
made in the Reformed churches, as early as the sixteenth cen- 
tury, to revive the order of deaconesses, but none of them 
proved successful until pastor Fliedner set to work, in 1836. 
He had given the subject some years of thought and study, 
and he brought to the execution of his purpose not only a 
clear perception of the work he meant to accomplish, but also 
a firm and indomitable purpose, in which he was nobly sus- 
tained and assisted by his devoted wife. It is of interest to 
recall the difficulties under which the beginnings were made. 
His wife was seriously ill at the time. " We had no money 
wherewith to buy the house," he writes ; " but, nevertheless, 
she laid it upon me, in the name of the Lord, to buy it, and 
the sooner the better. I bought it, cheerfully, on the twentieth 
of April, 1836. The money was to be paid before Martinmas 
of the same year." The money was raised and paid before 
that time, although the sum was large for that country and the 
class from whom it was secured. Two friends, single women, 
who offered themselves for nursing in the hospital, were the 
first Kaiserwerth deaconesses. In 1838 Fliedner first sent out 
deaconesses to work in other places, and the home institution 
gradually enlarged its sphere and added to the original infirm- 
ary an orphan asylum, a normal school, an insane asylum and 
a house of refuge for dissolute women. 

In 1849 he visited the United States, and founded a " Mother 
House," at Pittsburg. His work grew and prospered in other 
places, under the intellige'nt direction of those whom he had 
trained, and although he ended his useful and laborious life in 
1864, there were already in existence, in 1870, about four hun- 
dred houses or stations, in different parts of the world, prominent 
among which were Pesth, Bucharest, Constantinople, Beyrout, 
Jerusalem, Alexandria, London and Berlin. How small the be- 
ginning, and yet how grand the results ! Verily, it is not for men 
to despise the day of small things ! — From Life of Fliedner. 



394 MAGNANIMITY. 

MAGNANIMITY OF SALADIN. 



SIR WALTER SCOTT. 




HE effects of the climate became, as usual, 
fatal to the soldiers from the North, and the 
more so that the dissolute license of the 
Crusaders, forming a singular contrast to 
the principles and purposes of their taking 
up arms, rendered them more easy victims 
to the insalubrious influence of burning 
heat and chilling dews. To these discour- 
aging causes of loss was to be added the sword of the enemy. 
Saladin, than whom no greater name is recorded in Eastern 
history, had learned, by bitter experience, that his light- 
armed followers were little able to meet in close encounter 
with the iron-clad Franks, and had been taught, at the same 
time, to apprehend and dread the adventurous character of his 
antagonist Richard. But if his armies were more than once 
routed with great slaughter, his numbers gave the Saracen the 
advantage in those lighter skirmishes, of which many were 
inevitable. There was a perpetual warfare of posts and 
foragers, in which many valuable lives were lost without any 
corresponding object being gained. The Crusaders had to 
purchase the means of sustaining life by life itself; and water, 
like that of the well of Bethlehem, longed for by King David, 
one of its ancient monarchs, was then, as before, only obtained 
by the expenditure of blood. 

These evils were, in a great measure, counterbalanced by 
the stern resolution and restless activity of King Richard, who, 
with some of his best knights, was ever on horseback, ready 
to repair to any point where danger occurred, and often not 
only bringing unexpected succor to the Christians, but dis- 
comfiting the infidels when they seemed most secure of victory. 
But even the iron frame of Cceur de Leon could not support, 



MAGNANIMITY OF SALADIN. 395 

without injury, the alternations of the unwholesome climate, 
joined to ceaseless exertions of body and mind. 

He became afflicted with one of those slow and wasting 
fevers peculiar to Asia, and, in spite of his great strength and 
still greater courage, grew first unfit to mount on horseback, 
and then to attend the councils of war, which were, from time 
to time, held by the Crusaders. 

Naturally rash and impetuous, the irritability of his temper 
preyed on itself. He was dreaded by his attendants, and even 
the medical assistants feared to assume the necessary authority 
which a physician, to do justice to his patient, must needs 
exercise over him. 

One faithful baron, who, perhaps, from the congenial nature 
of his disposition, was devoutly attached to the king's person, 
dared alone to come between the dragon and his wrath, and 
quietly but firmly maintained a control which no other dared 
assume over the dangerous invalid, and which Thomas de 
Multon, the Lord of Gilsland, in Cumberland, surnamed by 
the Normans the Lord de Vaux, only exercised because he 
esteemed his sovereign's life and honor more than he did the 
degree of favor which he might lose, or run the risk he might 
incur in nursing a patient so intractable and whose displeasure 
was so perilous. 

It was on the decline of a Syrian day that Richard lay on 
his couch of sickness, loathing it as much in mind as his 
illness made it irksome to his body. His bright blue eye, 
which at all times shone with uncommon keenness and 
splendor, had its vivacity augmented by fever and mental 
impatience, and glancing from among his curled and unshorn 
locks of yellow hair as fitfully and as vividly as the last 
gleams of the sun shoot through the clouds of an approaching 
thunder storm, which still, however, are gilded by its beams. 
His manly features showed the progress of wasting illness, 
and his beard, neglected and untrimmed, had overgrown both 
lips and chin. 



396 MAGNANIMITY. 

Casting himself from side to side, now clutching toward him 
the coverings which, at the next moment, he flung as 
impatiently from him, his tossed couch and impatient gestures 
showed at once the energy and the reckless impatience of a 
disposition, whose natural bent was that of the most active 
exertion. 

"So Sir Kenneth met with a wandering physician at the 
grotto of Engeddi, ha ?" said the king, after a long and per- 
turbed silence, spent in the feverish agitation which we have 
endeavored to describe. 

" Not so, my liege ;" replied de Vaux ; " but he met, I think, 
near that place, with a Saracen Emir, with whom he had some 
melee in the way of proof of valor, and finding him worthy to 
bear brave men company, they went together, as errant knights 
are wont, to the grotto of Engeddi." 

" And did they there meet the physician ?" demanded the 
king, impatiently. 

" No, my liege," replied de Vaux ; " but the Saracen, 
learning of your Majesty's grievous illness, undertook that 
Saladin should send his own physician to you, and with 
many assurances of his eminent skill ; and he came to 
the grotto accordingly, after the Scottish knight had tarried 
a day for him and more. He is attended as if he were 
a prince, with drums and atabals, and servants on horse 
and foot, and brings with him letters of credence from 
Saladin." 

" Have they been examined by Giacomo Loredani ?" 

" I showed them to the interpreter ere bringing them hither, 
and behold their contents, in our language !" 

Richard took a scroll on which were inscribed these 
words : — 

" The blessing of Allah and his Prophet Mohammed (' Out 
upon the hound !' said Richard, spitting in contempt, by way 
of interjection). Saladin, king of kings, Soldan of Egypt and 
Syria, the light and refuge of the earth, to the great Melech 



MAGNANIMITY OF SALAD IN. 397 

Ric, Richard, of England, greeting : Whereas, we have been 
informed that the hand of sickness hath been heavy upon thee, 
our royal brother, and that thou hast with thee only such 
Nazarene and Jewish mediciners as work without the blessing 
of Allah and our holy Prophet (' Confusion on his head !' 
again muttered the English monarch), we have, therefore, sent, 
to tend and wait upon thee, at this time, the physician to our 
own person, Adoubec al Hakim, before whose face the angel 
Azrael (the angel of Death) spreads his wings and departs from 
the sick chamber; who knows the virtues of herbs and stones, 
the path of the sun, moon and stars, and can save man from 
all that is not written on his forehead. And we do this, pray- 
ing you heartily to honor and make use of his skill ; not 
only that we may do service to thy worth and valor, which 
is the glory of all the nations of Frangistan, but that we 
may bring the controversy which is at present between us 
to an end, either by honorable agreement or by open 
trial thereof, with our weapons, in a fair field ; seeing that 
it neither becomes thy courage and place to die the death 
of a slave who hath been overwrought by his taskmaster, 
nor befits it our fame that a brave adversary be snatched 
from our weapons by such a disease. And therefore, may 

the holy 

" Hold! hold !" said Richard, " I will have no more of this 
dog of a Prophet! It makes me sick to think the valiant and 
worthy Soldan should believe in a dead dog. Yes ; I will see 
his physician. I will put myself into the charge of this Hakim. 
I will repay the noble Soldan his generosity. I will meet 
Saladin in the field, as he so worthily proposes, and he shall 
have no cause to term Richard, of England, ungrateful. I will 
strike him to the earth with my battle-axe. I will convert him 
to Holy Church with such blows as he has rarely endured. 
He shall recant his errors before my good cross-handled 
sword, and I will have him baptized in the battle-field, from 
my own helmet, though the cleansing waters were mixed 



398 MAGNANIMITY. 

with the blood of us both. Haste, de Vaux, why dost 
thou delay a conclusion so pleasing ? Fetch the Hakim 
hither." 

The physician, who had already informed himself of the 
various symptoms of the king's illness, now felt his pulse 
for a long time, and with deep attention, while all around 
stood silent, and in breathless expectation. The sage next 
filled a cup with spring water, and dipped into it a small, 
red purse, which he took from his bosom. When he seemed 
to think it sufficiently medicated, he was about to offer it to 
the sovereign, who prevented him, by saying, " Hold, an 
instant — thou hast felt my pulse — let me lay my finger on 
thine ; I, too, as becomes a good knight, know something of 
thine art." 

The Arabian yielded his hand, without hesitation, and 
his long, slender, dark fingers were, for an instant, en- 
closed and almost buried in the large enfoldment of King 
Richard's hand. " His blood beats calm as an infant's," said 
the king ; so throb not theirs who poison princes. De Vaux, 
whether we live or die, dismiss this Hakim, with honor 
and safety. Command us, friend, to the noble Saladin. 
Should I die, it is without doubt of his faith ; should I 
live, it will be to thank him, as a warrior would desire to be 
thanked." 

He then raised himself in bed, took the cup in his hands, 
and turning to the Marquis and the others : " Mark what I 
say, and let my royal brethren pledge me, in Cyprus wine — 
' To the immortal honor of the first Crusader who shall strike 
lance or sword on the gate of Jerusalem ; and to the shame 
and eternal infamy of whosoever shall turn back from the 
plow on which he hath laid his hand.' " 

He drained the cup to the bottom, resigned it to the Arabian, 
and sunk back, as if exhausted, upon the cushions which were 
arranged to receive him. The physician, then, with silent but 
expressive signs, directed that all should leave the tent, ex- 



MAGNANIMITY OF SALAD IN. 399 

cepting himself and De Vaux, whom no remonstrance could 
induce to withdraw. The apartment was cleared, accord- 
ingly. 

When the critical hour had arrived, at which the physician, 
according to the rules of his art, had predicted that his royal 
patient might be awakened, with safety, the sponge was applied 
for that purpose ; and the leech had not made many observa- 
tions ere he assured the Baron of Gilsland that the fever 
had entirely left his sovereign, and that such was the happy 
strength of his constitution, it would not be even necessary, 
as in most cases, to give a second dose of the powerful 
medicine. 

Richard himself seemed of the same opinion, for, sitting up 
and rubbing his eyes, he demanded of De Vaux what present 
sum of money was in the royal coffers. The baron could not 
exactly inform him of the amount. 

" It matters not," said Richard ; " be it greater or smaller, 
bestow it all on this learned leech, who hath, I trust, given me 
back again to the service of the Crusade. If it be less than a 
thousand byzants, let him have jewels to make it up." 

" I sell not the wisdom with which Allah has endowed me," 
answered the Arabian physician, " and be it known to you, 
great prince, that the Divine medicine of which you have 
partaken would lose its effects in my unworthy hands, did I 
exchange its virtues either for gold or diamonds." 

" The physician refuseth a gratuity," said de Vaux. 

" Thomas de Vaux," said Richard, " thou knowest no courage 
but what belongs to the sword ; no bounty or virtue but what 
are used in chivalry ; I tell thee that this Moor, in his in- 
dependence, might set an example to them who account them- 
selves the flower of knighthood." 

" It is reward enough," said the Moor, folding his arms on 
his bosom, and maintaining an attitude at once respectful and 
dignified, "that so great a king as the *Melec Ric should 
thus speak of his servant." 

* Richard Cceur de Lion. 



400 MAGNANIMITY. 

BRAVERY AND MAGNANIMITY OF THE 
SPARTANS. 



PLUTARCH. 




T no time was the discipline of the Spartans less 
severe than when they were engaged in war. 
Then they were permitted to have fine clothes 
and costly armor, and to curl their hair, of 
which they had a great quantity. They were 
particular about this ornament, because the law- 
giver had said that a large head of hair added 
beauty to a good face and terror to an ugly one. 
During their campaigns they were better fed, and forced to 
exercise less severely than in time of peace, and their whole 
treatment was so much more indulgent that they were never 
better satisfied than when under military rule. They went to 
battle, dancing and keeping step to the music without disturb- 
ing their ranks. They were gay, cheerful, and so eager that 
they resembled race-horses, full of fire and neighing for the 
start. When the king advanced against the enemy, he was 
always surrounded by those who had been crowned at the' 
public games. Spartans considered it such a favor to be so 
placed in battle, that one of them who had gained a difficult 
victory in an Olympian game, upon being asked what reward 
he expected, since he would not accept money, as other com- 
batants did, replied : " I shall have the honor to fight foremost 
in the ranks before my prince." 

When they had routed an enemy they continued in pursuit 
until they were assured of the victory, but no longer, for they 
deemed it unworthy of a Grecian to destroy those who did 
not resist. This manner of dealing with their enemies was not 
only magnanimous, but was wise, for their opponents often 
gave up the fight and fled, knowing that their lives would be 
spared as soon as they did so. 



AFTER FORTY CENTURIES. 401 

AFTER FORTY CENTURIES. 




,OW beautiful, in the great, are the qualities of 
gentleness, kindness and charity. And when 
we read of them as practiced by those now- 
dead, how quickly do our hearts go out to 
them. It is an epitaph of real worth. 

We have just been reading of an Egyp- 
tian of rank and wealth, in those remote and 
wonderful times when mountains of stone 
rose up in the desert, at sight of which men of to-day stand 
lost in wonder and admiration. He does not glory in his 
wealth, or in his victories. But this is the message which he 
leaves to posterity, and which forty centuries have carefully 
preserved for us to read and ponder over, and perhaps act on. 
And do not these simple words touch your heart ? Listen to 
them: "Not a child did I injure. Not a widow did I oppress. 
Not a herdsman did I ill treat. There was no beggar in my 
days ; no one starved in my time. And when the years of 
famine came, I plowed all the lands of the province, to its 
northern and southern boundaries, feeding its inhabitants, and 
providing their food. There was no starving person in it, and 
I made the widow to be as though she possessed a husband." 
Very little thought had he that, after so many centuries, 
men in the far distant, then unknown, New World, speaking a 
different tongue, with habits and customs and rites so different, 
would read his epitaph and thank God for the record of a good 
man. The memory of the just is blessed. Good actions are 
the flowers of the heart. The memory of this dead man is 
fragrant still. May it prove a voice of power from the dead to 
the living. 

If we could know that far down the ages some word or 

deed of ours should spring into new life, what a restraining 

force it would be to keep us from bad words and evil deeds. 

But who can tell, as the wise men of those coming centuries 

26 



402 



MA GNA NIMITY. 



filter the refuse of these almost forgotten times, what residuum 
may remain, what fragments of our work, which we could wish 
utterly burned, may confront them, to settle some vexed query, 
or point a moral to that new age. But if only good is found, 
if those little fragments (if such there be) tell a story of good 
and true life, full of love to God and all his creatures, how 
grateful would we be. 

We will not point the moral. You will easily see what 
manner of life you and we ought to live, in view of this possi- 
bility of such an earthly resurrection. And if it does not 
come true in this world, what about the next ? Are we all 
ready for that ? — Golden Rule. 



ROYAL MAGNANIMITY. 




MAN named Lambrun and his wife had been many 
years in the service of Mary Stuart, and were 
sincerely attached to her. The tragical death 
of that unfortunate princess had such an effect 
on the husband that he did not long survive 
her, and the widow, Margaret Lambrun, deter- 
mined to revenge upon Queen Elizabeth the 
loss of two persons so dear to her. She there- 
fore disguised herself in man's clothes, bought two pistols and 
went to London. Soon after, when the Queen appeared in 
public, Margaret endeavored to make her way through the 
crowd in order to shoot her, but one of the pistols fell, and she 
was immediately apprehended. The Queen being informed 
of the circumstance, ordered the man to be brought before 
her, and said to him : " Well, sir, who are you, and why 
do you seek to kill me ?" " Madam," replied Margaret, " I am 
a woman ; I was a long time in the service of Mary Stuart, 
whom you put to death unjustly ; her execution caused the 
death of my dear husband who was sincerely attached to her; 



HUMBOLDT AND THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 



403 



and my affection for both of them has excited me to revenge." 
" And how do you think I ought to deal with you ?" said 
Elizabeth. " Do you speak to me as a queen or a judge ?" 
said Margaret. " As a queen." " Then," replied she, " you 
ought to pardon me." 

" And what security can you give that you will not attempt 
my life again ?" 

" Madam, a pardon granted under such conditions ceases to 
be a favor." " Well, then," said the Queen, " I pardon you, 
and trust to your gratitude for my safety." — Anonymous. 



HUMBOLDT AND THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 




WAS only twenty-four years of age when in 
Paris, whither I had gone with means given 
to me by a friend, but was at last about to 
resign my studies, from want of ability to meet 
my expenses. Professor Mitscherlich was 
then on a visit in Paris, and I had seen him in 
the morning, when he had asked me what was 
the cause of my depressed feelings ; I told 
him I had to go, for I had nothing left. The 
next morning, as I was seated at breakfast, in front of the yard 
of the hotel where I lived, I saw the servant of Humboldt ap- 
proach. He handed me a note, saying there was no answer, 
and disappeared. I opened the note, and I see it now before 
me as distinctly as if I held the paper in my hand. It said : 
" My friend : I hear that you intend leaving Paris in conse- 
quence of some embarrassment. That shall not be. I wish 
you to remain here as long as the object for which you came 
is not accomplished. I enclose you a check for £^o. It is a 
loan, which you may repay when you can." 

Some years afterward, when I could have repaid him, I 
wrote, asking for the privilege of remaining forever in his 



404 



MAGNANIMITY. 



debt, knowing that this request would be more consonant 
with his feelings than the recovery of the money, and I am 
now in his debt. What he had done for me I know he has 
done for many others, in silence and unknown to the world. 

% ■*. * * * ********* 

The influence he has exerted upon the progress of science 
is incalculable. I need only allude to the fact that the Cosmos, 
bringing every branch of natural science down to the compre- 
hension of every class of students, has been translated into the 
language of every civilized nation of the world, and gone 
through several editions. With him ends a great period in the 
history of science, a period to which Cuvier, Laplace, Arago, 
Gay-Lussac, Decandolle and Robert Brown belonged. — Eu- 
logy on Humboldt by Professor Louis Agassiz. 



CASIMIR, II, AND KONARSKI. 




ASIMIR, II, King of Poland, received a blow 
from a Polish gentleman named Konarski, who 
had lost all he possessed while playing with 
the prince. Scarcely was the blow given, 
when, sensible of the enormity of the crime, he 
betook himself to flight; but he was soon 
apprehended by the king's guards, and con- 
demned to lose his head. Casimir, who waited for him in 
silence amid his courtiers, as soon as he saw him appear, said: 
" I am not surprised at the conduct of this gentleman. Not 
being able to revenge himself on Fortune, it is not to be won- 
dered at that he has ill-tr.eated his friend. I am the only one 
to blame in this affair, for I ought not, by my example, to 
encourage a pernicious practice, which may be the ruin of my 
nobility." Then, turning to the criminal, he said: " I perceive 
you are sorry for your fault; that is sufficient; take your 
money again, and let us renounce gaming forever." 

— Anonymous. 



THE MAN OF ROSS. 405 

THE MAN OF ROSS. 




ALEXANDER POPE. 



SWfcdCHER than miser o'er his countless hoards, 
Nobler than kings or king-polluted lords, 
Here dwelt the Man of Ross ! O traveler, hear ! 
Departed merit claims a reverent tear. 
Friend to the friendless, to the sick man health, 
With generous joy he viewed his modest wealth ; 
He heard the widow's heaven-breathed prayer of praise, 
He marked the sheltered orphan's tearful gaze, 
Or, where the sorrow-shriveled captive lay, 
Poured the bright blaze of freedom's noontide ray." 

John Kyrle, surnamed " The Man of Ross," was a private 
gentleman of small fortune, born in 1664, and died in 1754, in 
the Parish of Ross, County of Hereford, England. He was 
distinguished for his benevolence and public spirit. During 
his lifetime he built a church and founded a hospital in his 
native place, and at his death he left a goodly portion of his 
fortune to be devoted to charitable and benevolent purposes. 

The foregoing tribute to his memory was penned by the 
poet Coleridge, on the occasion of his visit to the house for- 
merly occupied by the " Man of Ross." 

But all our praises why should lords engross ? 
Rise, honest muse ! and sing the Man of Ross ; 
Pleased Vaga echoes through her winding bounds, 
And rapid Severn hoarse applause resounds. 
Who hung with woods yon mountain's sultry brow? 
From the dry rock who bade the waters flow ? 
Not to the sky in useless columns tossed, 
Or in proud falls magnificently lost, 
But clear and artless, pouring through the plain 
Health to the sick and solace to the swain. 
Whose causeway parts the vale with shady rows ? 
Whose seats the weary traveler repose ? 
Who taught that heaven-directed spire to rise ? 
" The Man of Ross," each lisping babe replies. 
Behold the market-place, with poor o'erspread ! 
The Man of Ross divides the weekly bread ; 



406 



MA GNANIMITY. 



He feeds yon almshouse — neat, but void of state, 

Where age and want sit smiling at the gate ; 

Him portioned maids, apprenticed orphans blest, 

The young who labor and the old who rest. 

Is any sick ? The Man of Ross relieves, 

Prescribes, attends, the medicine makes and gives. 

Is there a variance ? Enter but his door, 

Balked are the courts, and contest is no more ; 

Despairing quacks, with curses, fled the place, 

And vile attorneys, now a useless race. 

Thrice happy man ! enabled to pursue 

What all so wish, but want the power to do ! 

O, say, what sums that generous hand supply ? 

What mines to swell that boundless charity ? 

Of debts and taxes, wife and children clear, 

This man possessed — five hundred pounds a year. 

Blush, grandeur, blush ! proud hearts withdraw your blaze; 

Ye little stars ! hide your diminished rays. 

And what ? no monument, inscription, stone, 

His race, his form, his name almost unknown ! 

Who builds a church to God, and not to fame, 

Will never mark the marble with his name. 



LAST HOURS OF MADAME ROLAND. 



ALPHONSE LOUIS MARIE DE LAMARTINE. 




HE examination and trial of Madame Roland 
was but a repetition of those charges 
against the Gironde with which every 
harangue of the Jacobin party was filled. 
She was reproached with being the wife of 
Roland, and the friend of his accomplices. 
With a proud look of triumph, Madame 
Roland admitted her guilt in both instances; 
spoke with tenderness of her husband, with respect of her 
friends, and with dignified modesty of herself; but borne down 
by the clamors of the court whenever she gave vent to . her 
indignation against her persecutors, she ceased speaking, amid 



LAST HOURS OF MADAME ROLAND. 407 

the threats and invectives of her hearers. The people were at 
that period permitted to take a fearful and leading part in the 
dialogue between the judges and accused ; they even permitted 
persons on trial to address the court, or compelled their silence ; 
the very verdict rested with them. 

Madame Roland heard herself sentenced to death with the 
air of one who saw in her condemnation merely her title to 
immortality. She rose, and slightly bowing to her judges, 
said, with a bitter and ironical smile, " I thank you for con- 
sidering me worthy to share the fate of the good and great 
men you have murdered !" She flew down the steps of the 
Conciergerie with the rapid swiftness of a child about to 
obtain some long-desired object: the end and aim of her 
desires was death. As she passed along the corridor, where 
all the prisoners had assembled to greet her return, she looked 
at them smilingly, and, drawing her right hand across her 
throat, made a sign expressive of cutting off a head. This was 
her only farewell; it was tragic as her destiny, joyous as her 
deliverance ; and well was it understood by those who saw it. 
Many who were incapable of weeping for their own fate shed 
tears of unfeigned sorrow for hers. 

On that day (November ioth, 1793) a greater number than 
usual of carts laden with victims rolled onward toward the 
scaffold. Madame Roland was placed in the last, beside an 
infirm old man, named Lamarche. She wore a white robe, as 
a symbol of her innocence, of which she was anxious to con- 
vince the people ; her magnificent hair, black and glossy as a 
raven's wing, fell in thick masses, almost to her knees ; her 
complexion, purified by her long captivity, and now glowing 
under the influence of a sharp, frosty November day, bloomed 
with all the freshness of early youth. Her eyes were full of 
expression ; her whole countenance seemed radiant with glory, 
while a movement between pity and contempt agitated her 
lips. A crowd followed them, uttering the coarsest threats 
and most revolting expressions. " To the guillotine ! to the 
guillotine !" exclaimed the female part of the rabble. 



408 MAGNANIMITY. 

" I am going to the guillotine," replied Madame Roland ; 
" a few- moments, and I shall be there ; but those who send me 
thither will follow me ere long. I go innocent, but they will 
come stained with blood, and you who applaud our execution 
will then applaud theirs with equal zeal." Sometimes she 
would turn away her head that she might not appear to hear the 
insults with which she was assailed, and would lean with almost 
filial tenderness over the aged partner of her execution. The poor 
old man wept bitterly, and she kindly and cheeringly encour- 
aged him to bear up with firmness and to suffer with resignation. 
She even tried to enliven the dreary journey they were per- 
forming together by little attempts at cheerfulness, and at 
length succeeded in winning a smile from her fellow-sufferer. 

A colossal statue of Liberty, composed of clay, like the 
liberty of the time, then stood in the middle of the Place de la 
Concorde, on the spot now occupied by the Obelisk ; the 
scaffold was erected beside this statue. Upon arriving there 
Madame Roland descended from the cart in which she had 
been conveyed. Just as the executioner had seized her arm 
to enable her to be the first to mount the guillotine, she dis- 
played an instance of that noble and tender consideration for 
others which only a woman's heart could conceive, or put into 
practice at such a moment. "Stay!" said she, momentarily 
resisting the man's grasp. " I have one only favor to ask, and 
that is not for myself; I beseech you grant it me." Then, 
turning to the old man, she said : " Do you precede me to the 
scaffold ; to see my blood flow would be making you suffer the 
bitterness of death twice over. I must spare you the pain of 
witnessing my punishment." The executioner allowed this 
arrangement to be made. 

With what sensibility and firmness must the mind have been 
imbued which could, at such a time, forget its own sufferings, 
to think only of saving one pang to an unknown old man ! 
and how clearly does this one little trait attest the heroic calm- 
ness with which this celebrated woman met her death ! After 
the execution of Lamarche, which she witnessed without chang- 



THE COUNTESS' PILLAR. 



409 



changing color, Madame Roland stepped lightly up to the 
scaffold, and bowing before the statue of Liberty, as though to 
do homage to a power for whom she was about to die, ex- 
claimed, " O, Libqrty ! Liberty ! how many crimes are com- 
mitted in thy name !" She then resigned herself to the hands 
of the executioner, and in a few seconds her head fell into the 
basket placed to receive it. 



THE COUNTESS' PILLAR. 



WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. 




(N the roadside, between Penrith and Appleby, 
there stands a pillar with the following in- 
scription : — 

" This pillar was erected, in the year 1656, 
by Anne, Countess Dowager of Pembroke, 
for a memorial of her last parting with her 
pious mother, Margaret, Countess Dowager 
of Cumberland, on the second of April, 
1616; in memory whereof she hath left an 
annuity of £4, to be distributed to the poor of the parish of 
Brougham, every second day of April, forever, upon the stone 
table placed hard by. Laus Deo ! " 

While the poor gather round, till the end of time 
May this bright flower of charity display 
Its bloom, unfolding at the appointed day ; 
Flower than the loveliest of the vernal prime 
Lovelier, transported from heaven's purest clime! 

" Charity never faileth; " on that creed, 
More than on written testament or deed, 
The pious lady built with hope sublime. 
Alms on this stone to be dealt out forever ! 

" Laus Deo." Many a stranger, passing by, 
Has with that parting mixed a filial sigh, 
Blest its humane memorial's fond endeavor, 
And fastened on those lines an eye tear-glazed, 
Has ended, though no clerk, with " God be praised ! " 



410 MAGNANIMITY. 

THE KING AND THE MILLER. 




EAR Sans Souci, the favorite residence of 
Frederic the Great, there was a mill, which 
much interfered with the view from the 
palace. One day, the king sent to inquire 
what the owner would take for the mill, and 
the unexpected reply came that the miller 
would not sell it for any money. The king, 
much incensed, gave orders that the mill 
should be pulled down. The miller made no resistance, but, 
folding his arms, quietly remarked, "The king may do this, 
but there are laws in Prussia." And he took legal proceedings, 
the result of which was that the king had to rebuild the mill, 
and to pay a good sum of money besides, in compensation. 

Although his Majesty was much chagrined at this end to 
the matter, he put the best face he could upon it, and turning 
to his courtiers, he remarked, " I am glad to see that there are 
just laws and upright judges in my kingdom." 

A sequel to this incident occurred about forty years ago. A 
descendant of the miller of whom we have just been talking 
had come into possession of the mill. 

After having struggled for several years against ever- 
increasing poverty, and being at length quite unable to keep 
on his business, he wrote to the King of Prussia, reminding 
him of the incident we have just related, and stating that, if 
his Majesty felt so disposed, he should be very thankful, in his 
present difficulty, to sell the mill. The king wrote the follow- 
ing reply with his own hand : — 

" My Dear Neighbor : I cannot allow you to sell the mill. It must 
always be in your possession as long as one member of your family ex- 
ists, for it belongs to the history of Prussia. I regret, however, to hear 
you are in such straightened circumstances, and therefore send you here- 
with $6000, in the hope that it may be of some service in restoring your 
fortunes. Consider me always your affectionate neighbor, 

Frederic William. 
— Examiner and Chronicle. 




DEVOTION TO DUTY, 



" Every mission constitutes a pledge of duty. Every man is bound to con- 
secrate his every facility to its fulfillment. Me will derive his rule of action 
from the profound conviction of that duty." 

— Joseph Mazzini. 



PART VIII. 



DEVOTION TO DUTY. 



THE HEROES OF BERKENHEAD. 




HE British steamer " Berkenhead" was lost on 
the coast of Africa. She struck on a hidden 
rock, stove a plank at the bows, and went 
down in half an hour's time. There was a 
regiment of troops on board. As soon as 
the alarm was given, and it was apparent 
the ship's doom was sealed, the roll of the 
drum called the soldiers to arms on the 
upper deck. The call was promptly obeyed, though every 
gallant heart knew that it was his death summons. The 
women and children were placed in the boats, and nearly all 
saved. There were no boats for the troops, but no panic, no 
blanched, quivering lips appeared among them. Down went 
the ship, and down went the heroic band, shoulder to shoulder, 
firing &feu dej'oie, as they sank beneath the waves. 

Undaunted, on the vessel's deck, 

The gallant soldiers stand, 
The stricken ship a sinking wreck, 

And death on every hand ! 
413 



414 DEVOTION TO DUTY. 

Death ! for the life-boats bear away 
Their freight of feebler frame, 

And women pale and childhood frail 
Brave manhood's succor claim. 

But who, brave hearts, shall care for you ? 

So firm in will and deed ; 
You, still in storm and danger true ; 

Ah ! none for you may plead ; 
Shoulder to shoulder, firm ye stand, 

And still on death ye gaze, 
Nor pallid cheek nor trembling hand 

A faltering soul betrays. 

Deep peals the larum of the drum, 

Not to the battle field, 
Yet gallantly the soldiers come, 

Who feel their doom is sealed ! 
Their doom is sealed, for one by one, 

As moments pass, they know 
How heave the billows for their grave 

The sinking deck below ! 

Shoulder to shoulder, hand to hand, 

They stand to meet their fate ; 
O dauntless souls ! O gallant band ! 

Who thus for death can wait ! 
No craven there ; no bloodless cheek ; 

The calm, unwavering eye 
Tells, as no human words can speak, 

How the brave heart can die ! 

Hushed seem the murmurs of the wave, 

And hushed the very air, 
As in the stillness of the grave 

They stand in silence there ! 
Slow sinks the ship — a lurid glare ! 

A volley, loud and deep ! 
The smoke wreaths past, they melt away, 

And on the billows sweep ! 
Sweep on — and o'er the vanished wreck 

The white wave lifts its crest, 
Like plumes above each gallant brow, 

Or wreaths upon each breast. 



"ONE HAND FOR INJURIES, ANOTHER FOR GOD:' 415 

They perish as the warrior dies, 

'Mid battle's stormy breath, 
When, through the calm, undaunted eyes, 

The brave soul looks on death ! 
O dauntless hearts ! O gallant band ! 

Wear this, your glorious crown ! 
Shoulder to shoulder, hand to hand, 

'Twas thus your ship went down ! 

Miss E. G. Barber. 



"ONE HAND FOR INJURIES, ANOTHER FOR 

GOD." 




IACOOMES, the first Indian convert on 
Martha's Vineyard, was a remarkable man. 
He was an Indian of Great Harbor, near 
Edgartown. The Indian sachems and other 
of their principal men looked upon him as 
an ordinary or mean person, on account of 
his humble parentage, slow speech and 
uninteresting countenance; yet there was 
within him that which afterward appeared of 
greater value than the endowments of those who looked upon 
him with contempt. Living among the English, some of them 
visited him in his wigwam, and were courteously entertained 
by him ; and he visited them in return, evidently that he might 
learn something that would be for his advantage. About the 
same time he also went to the English meeting, where the 
Rev. Thomas Mayhew, who was then minister to the few 
English families in Edgartown, preached. Mr. Mayhew had, 
as yet, not made any direct efforts for the conversion of the 
Indians, but was revolving in his mind some plans whereby to 
reach them. The coming of Hiacoomes to his meeting, the 
disposition he manifested to hear and receive instruction, and 
the gravity of his demeanor, induced the minister to try what 
he could do in influencing him to become a Christian. He 



416 



DEVOTION TO DUTY. 



immediately sought an opportunity for conversation, and find- 
ing encouragement in his interview, he invited the Indian in- 
quirer to come to his house every Sabbath evening, that he 
might speak to him of religion. The news soon spread among 
the Indians, and the sachems and pawwaws were much alarmed, 
and tried to discourage Hiacoomes from holding communica- 
tion with the English and receiving their instructions ; but all 
to no purpose, as he was strongly bent after still higher attain- 
ments in the knowledge of God. This was in 1743, and in 
two years afterward, having in the meantime been prepared 
by Mr. Mayhew, he commenced teaching to the Indians the 
things of Christianity. 

He was not suffered to proceed without opposition from the 
pawwaws, sachems and other Indians ; but he made this im- 
provement on the injustice done him: "I had," he remarked, 
"one hand for injuries and another hand for God; while I 
received wrong with the one, I laid faster hold on God with the 
other." These words should be written in gold. 

— New York Independent. 



THE MONK OF JARROW. 




Y one who was well qualified to relate it, the 
last moments of our great Saxon author have 
been recorded with genuine pathos, and a noble 
and touching scene was the death-bed of Bede, 
the Monk of Jarrow. It is the. most remarkable 
and pathetic in the early history of literature, 
and although often related, the reader will still 
derive pleasure from its contemplation. For 
many long days he had been employed upon the fondest of his 
literary undertakings ; he had almost finished a translation of 
the four gospels into the common language of the people. A 
chapter only remained to complete the noble volume. He was 



THE MONK OF JARROW. 417 

sure that such a volume would redound to the honor of the 
dear Saviour, in whose presence he was shortly to appear. A 
few hours, and the sand in the glass will have run its course. 
With a prophetic sense of the approach of death, the good old 
monk calls his scribes to draw near, and to use all diligence 
and dispatch ; they are all well practiced in their craft, and 
speed quickly on their holy task. But the countenance of the 
venerable author is visibly changing; death is casting its 
shadows over the pale features of the monk. The good work 
is not yet finished ; the last chapter of the gospel of St. John 
yet remaineth in the original language. The busy pens have 
ceased, waiting .for the dictation of Bede ; but beneath the 
serene countenance of the Monk life and death are struggling 
for the mastery; no voice is heard, and the spirit of genius 
seems to pass quietly away. Fearful as they are of disturbing 
the peace of the dying saint, one of the scribes cannot refrain 
from whispering, " Dearest master, there is still another chapter 
wanting; will the trouble be too great to proceed? " A new 
spirit is given to the man of letters. " Trouble ! is none," saith 
he; " take your pen, prepare your parchment, and write fast." 
During a short interval which occurs in these labors, he dis- 
tributes his little wealth among his brother monks. Mark the 
store of worldly goods accumulated by an author in the old 
days of Saxon literature ; there is little else than some pepper, 
a few napkins and some incense ; there is neither gold nor 
silver found in the coffers of that lowly monk ; his treasure is 
laid up where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. 
The eleventh hour was long passed ; a few short moments, 
and the spirit of Bede will have left its venerable abode. The 
holy volume is still open; the parchment is not quite filled up; 
the love of the gospel again appears greater than the reverence 
for the dying saint. " Dearest master," saith a youthful scribe, 
with tears of love and respect, " there is yet one sentence un- 
written." "Write quickly," replies the monk; and he has 
strength to tell him what to write. The stillness of the cell is 
broken by the scratching of their eager pens ; they cease, and 
27 



418 



DEVOTION TO DUTY. 



the scribe, with joyous exultation, exclaims, " Master, it is 
finished ! " With a smile of thankfulness and peace, he answers, 
" It is well ; you have said truly it is finished ; bear me in your 
arms, and set me before the place at which I have been wont 
to pray." The monks fulfill the wishes of the holy man ; a 
few minutes, and whilst singing, " Glory to God, the Father, 
to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost," the soul of Bede, the 
venerable, soars into the regions of the blest, and his body falls 
lifeless on the cold stone pavement of his little cell. 

— Merriweather 's " Glimmerings in the Dark." 



JOHN MILTON. 




WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. 



P^SPdLTON ! thou should'st be living at this hour ; 
England hath need of thee ! She is a fen 
Of stagnant waters. Altar, sword and pen, 

Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower, 

Have forfeited their ancient English dower 
Of inward happiness. We are selfish men ; 
Oh ! raise us up, return to us again, 

And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power ! 
Thy soul was like a star, and dwelt apart ; 

Thou had'st a voice whose sound was like the sea ; 

Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free, 

So did'st thou travel on life's common way 
In cheerful godliness ; and yet thy heart 

The lowliest duties on herself did lay. 

It is impossible to refuse to Milton the honor due to a life 
of the sincerest piety and the most dignified virtue. No man 
ever lived under a more abiding sense of responsibility. No 
man ever strove more faithfully to use time and talent " as ever 
in the great Taskmaster's eye." No man so richly endowed 
was ever less ready to trust in his own powers, or more prompt 
to own his dependence on " that eternal and propitial throne, 
where nothing is readier than grace and refuge to the distresses 
of mortal suppliants." His morality was of the loftiest order. 



THE APOSTLE OF TEMPERANCE. 



419 



He possessed a self-control which, in one susceptible of such 
vehement emotions, was marvelous. No one ever saw him 
indulging in those propensities which overcloud the mind and 
pollute the heart. 

No youthful excesses treasured up for him a suffering and 
remorseful old age. From his youth up he was temperate in 
all things, as became one who had consecrated himself to a 
life struggle against vice, and error, and darkness, in all their 
forms. He had started with the conviction "that he who 
would not frustrate of his hope to write well hereafter in 
laudable things, ought himself to be a true poem ; that is, a 
composition and pattern of the best and honorablest things ;" 
and from this he never swerved. His life was indeed a true 
poem ; or it might be compared to an anthem on his own 
favorite organ — high-toned, solemn and majestic. — Quarterly 
Review. 



THE APOSTLE OF TEMPERANCE. 




HEOBALD Mathew, the " Apostle of Tem- 
perance," was born at Thomastown, Tip- 
perary County, Ireland, October ioth, 1790, 
and died December 8th, 1856. Soon after 
his ordination to the priesthood, he began 
to interest himself warmly in the condition 
of the poorer classes, and organized a society 
for visiting the sick and the unfortunate. 
His urbane manners and charitable disposition soon acquired 
for him an extraordinary influence. In 1838 a Quaker first 
directed his attention to the necessity of suppressing intoxica- 
tion. Soon after he was invited by several total abstinence 
men in Cork to join them in devising a public crusade against 
drunkenness. A total abstinence society was formed, of which 
he was unanimously chosen president. Thirty-five persons 
took the pledge at his hands at once ; and in the following day 



420 DEVOTION TO DUTY. 

several hundred joined the society, and in the course of five 
months he administered the pledge, at Cork alone, to one hun- 
dred and fifty thousand converts. He was invited to all parts 
of Ireland. In Limerick the crowds who came to hear him 
from the furthest parts of Connaught were so great that, but 
for the liberality of the citizens, there would have been a famine 
in the place. 

He now gave up everything else to devote his life to the 
cause of temperance. At Galway he administered the pledge 
to one hundred thousand people in two days, and after visiting 
every large town in Ireland, visited England, where he was 
received with the greatest enthusiasm. His benevolent labors 
had involved him deeply in debt, and although he received 
from the Queen a pension of ,£300 per year, most of it was 
employed in paying an insurance for the benefit of his 
creditors. Some pleasant reminiscences of this noted friar are 
given in the following article, by a distinguished Irish barrister, 
Hon. Alex. M. Sullivan, M. P. :— 

" I was little more than twelve years of age when I first 
heard Father Mathew, and I can still remember the impressions 
then created. 

" They were, I am confident, similar to the emotions expe- 
rienced by most of those whose good fortune it was to have 
listened at any time to the ' Apostle of Temperance.' 

" I was moved, not so much by his moods, as by some inde- 
scribable influence or charm which he seemed to exercise over 
his audience. His voice was exceedingly sweet and musical 
and capable of great inflections. 

" His features were pleasing and handsome, and when he 
smiled, sunshine diffused itself all round. There was an air of 
dignity and tenderness indescribable about him, and the earnest- 
ness with which he spoke, the intense feeling he displayed, 
were irresistible. When such a man preached, among a people 
so susceptible as the Celtic Irish, a cause so just and holy — 
preached it out of the fullness of a heart abounding with love for 
them, with compassion for their sorrow and solicitude for their 



THE APOSTLE OF TEMPERANCE. 421 

happiness — who can wonder that the whole nation rose at his 
words, as Christendom answered to the call of Peter the Hermit ? 

" It was indeed a ' crusade' Father Mathew preached. Where- 
ever he visited a town or a city, the population for a score of 
miles all round turned out en masse. At Limerick, so vast was 
the assemblage that a troop of dragoons passing along the 
quay got 'jammed' in the crowd, and were literally pushed 
into the river by the surging of the multitude. Railways were 
at the time scarcely known in Ireland, and Father Mathew 
traveled by the mail coach, out of which circumstance a for- 
midable State grievance arose. If the inhabitants of a town or 
village happened to hear that the famous Capuchin was a pas- 
senger, they waylaid the vehicle — 'stopped her Majesty's 
mail,' in fact — and refused to let it proceed until he had 
administered the pledge to them. 

" It was a time when political feeling ran high and strong in 
Ireland. It was the period of O'Connell's Repeal Agitation, 
and of all the accompanying excitement of that movement. 
Yet, strange to say, Orange and Green alike waved a greeting 
to Father Mathew ; Whig, Tory and Repealer sounded his 
praise ; and nowhere in all Ireland could he have received a 
welcome more cordial or enthusiastic than that which was ex- 
tended to him, ' Popish friar' as he was, by the Protestants of 
Ulster. He had been warned not to carry out his purpose of 
visiting that province ; the Orangemen, it was declared, could 
not stand the sight of a Catholic priest received with public 
festive display in their midst. What really happened was that 
the dreaded Orangemen came out in grand procession to join 
in the ovation. 

"When Father Mathew saw their flags hung out at Cootehill, 
on church and kirk, he rightly apprehended the spirit of the 
display, and called for ' three cheers' for them ! A Catholic 
clergyman calling for a cordial salutation of the Orange 
banner, and a Catholic assemblage heartily responding, was 
something almost inconceivable. It had never occurred before 
in Ireland ; and I am afraid it has never occurred since." 



422 DEVOTION TO DUTY. 

DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 



HENRY WARD BEECHER. 




fe^ 



HO shall recount our martyr's sufferings for 
this people since November, i860? His 
horizon has been black with storm by day 
and by night ; he has trod the way of danger 
and of darkness ; on his shoulders rested a 
government dearer to him than his own 
life. At its integrity millions of men were 
striking, at home, and upon this govern- 
ment foreign eyes lowered. It stood, a lone island in a sea 
full of storms, and every tide and wave seemed eager to devour 
it. Upon thousands of hearts great sorrows and anxieties have 
rested, but not on one such, or in such a measure, as upon that 
simple, truthful, noble soul, our faithful and sainted Lincoln. 
Never rising to the enthusiasm of more impatient natures in 
hours of hope, and never sinking with mercurial natures, in 
hours of defeat, to such depths of despondency, he held on 
with immovable patience and fidelity, putting caution against 
hope, that it might not be premature, and hope against caution, 
that it might not yield to dread and danger. He wrestled 
ceaselessly through four black and dreadful purgatorial years, 
wherein God was cleansing the sin of His people as by fire. 

At last the watcher beheld the gray dawn for the country ; 
the mountains began to give their forms forth from out of 
darkness, and the East came rushing toward us with arms full 
of joy for all our sorrows. Then it was for him to be glad 
exceedingly that had sorrowed immeasurably. Peace could 
bring no heart such joy, such rest, such honor, trust and 
gratitude. He but looked upon it, as Moses looked upon the 
promised land, and then the wail of the nation proclaimed that 
he had gone from among us. Not thine the sorrow, but ours, 
sainted soul. Thou hast indeed entered the promised land, 



DEA TH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 423 

while we are yet on the march. To us remains the rocking of 
the deep and the storm upon the land, days of duty and 
nights of watching; but thou art sphered high above all dark- 
ness, far beyond all sorrow and weariness. Oh, weary heart ! 
rejoice exceedingly, thou that hast enough suffered. Thou 
hast beheld Him who, invisibly, hath led thee in this great 
wilderness. Thou standest among the elect ; around thee are 
the royal men that have ennobled human life in every age, and 
the coronet of glory on thy brow, as a diadem of joy, is upon 
thee forevermore. Over all this land, over all the little cloud 
of years that now, from thy infinite horizon, moves back as a 
speck, thou art lifted up as high as the star is above the cloud. 
In the goodly company of Mount Zion thou shalt find that 
rest which thou hast, sorrowing, sought ; and thy name, an 
everlasting name in Heaven, shall flourish in fragrance and 
beauty as long as the sun shall last upon the earth, and hearts 
remain to revere truth, fidelity and goodness. 

He who now sleeps has, by this event, been clothed with 
new influence. Dead, he speaks to men who now willingly 
hear what before they refused to listen to. 

Now his simple and weighty words will be gathered, like 
those of Washington, and your children and children's children 
shall be taught to ponder the simplicity and deep wisdom of 
the utterances which, in time of party heat, passed as idle 
words. The patriotism of men will receive a new impulse, and 
men, for his sake, will love the whole country which he loved 
so well. I swear you, on the altar of his memory, to be more 
faithful to the country for which he has perished, by his very 
perishing, and swear anew hatred to that slavery which made 
him a martyr and a conqueror. 

And now the martyr is moving in triumphant march, 
mightier than when alive. The nation rises up at every stage 
of his coming. Cities and States are his pall-bearers, and the 
cannon speaks the hours with solemn progression. Dead! 
dead ! dead ! he yet speaketh ! Is Washington dead ? Is 
Hampden dead ? Is David dead ? Is any man that ever was 



424 



DEVOTION TO DUTY. 



fit to live, dead ? Disenthralled of flesh, risen to the unob- 
structed sphere where passion never comes, he begins his 
illimitable work. His life is now grafted upon the infinite, and 
will be fruitful, as no earthly life can be. Pass on, thou that 
hast overcome ! Your sorrows, oh people, are his pseans. 
Your bells, and bands, and muffled drums sound triumphs in 
his ears. Wail and weep here; God makes it echo joy and 
triumph there. Pass on! Four years ago, oh Illinois, we 
took from thy midst an untried man, and from among thy 
people. We return him to you a mighty conqueror. Not 
thine any more, but the nation's ; not ours, but the world's. 
Give him place, oh, ye prairies ! In the midst of this great 
continent his dust shall rest, a sacred treasure to myriads who 
shall pilgrim to that shrine to kindle anew their zeal and 
patriotism. Ye winds, that move over the mighty placers of the 
West, chant his requiem ! Ye people, behold the martyr whose 
blood, as so many articulate words, pleads for fidelity, for lav/, 
for liberty ! 

HENRY MARTYN AT SHIRAZ. 



DEAN HENRY ALFORD. 




ENRY MARTYN, a zealous and devoted 
missionary, was born at Truro, England, in 
1 78 1. He was educated at St. John's Col- 
lege, Cambridge, where he obtained a fel- 
lowship, in 1802. About this time he had 
a deep religious experience, and resolved, 
on entering the ministry, to devote himself 
to the service of foreign missions. He fin- 
ished his theological studies, in 1803, and in 1805 set sail for 
India, under the auspices of the African and Eastern Mission- 
ary Society. 

He resided in Bengal, as chaplain, and traveled for several 



HENR Y MARTYN AT SHIRAZ. 425 

years in India and Persia, preaching, and studying the native 
languages. Having a natural aptness for acquiring the latter, 
he was chosen to superintend the translation of the New 
Testament, undertaken by direction of the Missionary Society, 
into Hindostanee and Persian. He had also made considerable 
progress on an Arabic version, when his failing health com- 
pelled him to suspend his labors. He died, October 16th, 
1 812, at Tocat, in Asia Minor. An unhealthy climate and an 
enthusiasm that could brook no obstacles, and which sometimes 
led him to overtax his physical strength, cut short the career 
of one of the noblest and most brilliant men that ever con- 
secrated himself to the cause of the heathen. 

A vision of bright Shiraz, of Persian bards the theme ; 
The vine with branches laden hangs o'er the crystal stream ; 
The nightingale all day her notes in rosy thickets trills, 
And the brooding heat-mist faintly lies along the distant hills. 

About the plain are scattered wide, in many a crumbling heap, 
The fanes of other days, the tombs where Iran's poets sleep ; 
And in the midst, like burnished gems, in noonday light repose 
The minarets of bright Shiraz — the city of the Rose. 

One group beside the river bank, in rapt discourse are seen, 
Where hangs the golden orange on its boughs of purest green ; 
Their words are sweet and low, and their looks are lit with joy ; 
Some holy blessing seems to rest on them and their employ. 

The pale-faced Frank among them sits ; what brought him from afar ? 
Nor bears he bales of merchandise, nor teaches skill in war ; 
One pearl alone he brings with him — the book of life and death — 
One warfare only teaches he — to fight the fight of faith. 

And Iran's sons are round him ; and one, with solemn tone, 

Tells how the Lord of Glory was rejected by his own ; 

Tells, from the wondrous Gospel, of the trial and the doom, 

The words divine of love and might — the scourge, the cross, the tomb ! 

Far sweeter to the stranger's ear those Eastern accents sound, 
Than music of the nightingale that fills the air around ; 
Lovelier than balmiest odors sent from gardens of the rose, 
The fragrance from the contrite soul and chastened lip that flows, 



426 DEVOTION TO DUTY. 

The nightingales have ceased to sing, the roses' leaves are shed, 
The Frank's pale face in Tocat's field hath mouldered with the dead ; 
Alone and all unfriended, midst his Master's work he fell, 
With none to bathe his fevered brow, with none his tale to tell. 

But still those sweet and solemn tones about him sound in bliss, 
And fragrance from those flowers of God forevermore is his ! 
For his the meed, by grace, of those who, rich in zeal and love, 
Turn many unto righteousness, and shine as stars above. 



A TRUE HERO. 




R,AMES Maxwell was pilot onboard a fine steam 
I > vessel called the Clydesdale. The vessel was 
appointed to sail between Clyde and the west 
coast of Ireland. One evening- after setting- 
out on the voyage across the Channel, with 
between seventy and eighty passengers, Max- 
well became sensible, at intervals, of the smell 
of fire, and went about anxiously endeavoring 
to discover whence it originated. 
On communicating with the master, he found that he, too, 
had perceived it. But neither of them could form the least 
conjecture as to where it arose. A gentleman passenger also 
observed this alarming odor, which alternately rose and 
passed away, leaving them in doubt of it being a reality. 

About eleven o'clock at night this gentleman went to bed, 
confident of safety ; but while Maxwell was at the helm, the 
master ceased not an instant to search from place to place, as 
the air became more and more impregnated with the odor of 
burning timber. At last, he sprung upon the deck, exclaim- 
ing: " Maxwell ! the flames have burst out at the paddle-box !" 
James calmly replied, " Then, shall I put about ?" The order 
was to proceed. 

Maxwell struck one hand upon his heart, as he flung the 
other over his head, and with uplifted eyes, uttered : " O God 



A TRUE HERO. 427 

Almighty, enable me to do my duty ! and God, provide for 
my wife, my mother and my child !" 

Whether it was the thought of the dreadful nature of the 
Galloway coast, girdled as it was with perpendicular masses 
of rock, which influenced the master in his decision to press 
forward, we cannot tell ; but as there was only the wide ocean 
before and around them, the pilot did not long persist in his 
hopeless course. He put the boat about, sternly subduing 
every expression of emotion, and standing with his eyes fixed 
on the point for which he wished to steer. 

The fire, which the exertions of all the men could not keep 
under, soon raged with ungovernable fury, and keeping the 
engines in violent action, the vessel, at the time the fleetest 
that had ever been built, flew through the water with incredible 
speed. All the passengers were gathered to the bow, the 
rapid flight of the vessel keeping that part clear of the flames, 
while it carried the fire, flames and smoke backward to the 
quarter-galley, where the self-devoted pilot stood, like a martyr 
at the stake. 

Everything possible was done by the master and crew to 
keep the place on which he stood deluged with water ; but this 
became, every moment, more difficult and more hopeless ; for, 
in spite of all that could be done, the devouring fire seized the 
cabin under him, and the spot on which he stood immovable 
became intensely heated. 

Still, still, the hero never flinched ! At intervals the motion 
of the wind threw aside the intervening mass of flames and 
smoke for a moment, and then might be heard exclamations 
of hope and gratitude, as the multitude on the prow got a 
glimpse of the brave man, standing calm and fixed on his 
dreadful watch ! 

The blazing vessel glaring through the darkness of night, 
had been observed by the people on shore, and they had 
assembled on the heights adjoining an opening in the rocks 
about twelve yards wide ; and there, by waving torches and 
other signals, did their best to direct the crew to the spot. The 



428 



DEVOTION TO DUTY. 



signals were not misunderstood by Maxwell, whose feet were 
already roasted on the deck. 

The fierce fire still kept the engine in furious action ; but this 
could not have lasted above another minute, and during the 
interval he ran her into the open space, and alongside a ledge 
of rocks, upon which every creature got safe on shore 
unscathed, except the self-devoted one to whom all owed their 
lives. Had he flinched for a minute, they must all have 
perished. — Anonymous. 



OBEYING ORDERS. 




HE late Lord Derby was decorating one of 
his country mansions, and was having the 
central hall floor either painted or tessellated. 
A young man, tall and powerful, was at 
work on one of the walls, when the Earl or- 
dered a number of slippers to be thrown on 
the door mat, desiring this young man to 
order any one who came along to put on a 
pair before crossing the passage, and added to the order — 

" If anybody does not do it, you must take him by the 
shoulders and turn him out." 

Soon after, a hunting party passed, and the Duke of Wel- 
lington, with his splashed boots, opened the door and rushed 
along the hall. The young man immediately jumped off the 
ladder on which he was painting, and, seizing His Grace by the 
shoulder, fairly pushed him out of the house. The Duke's 
eagle eye went right through him ; but, as he did not know the 
Duke, he only kept wondering who the individual was. In the 
course of the day, the Earl, on hearing of the circumstance, 
summoned all the household and men at work into the study, 
and, seating himself beside the great warrior, demanded who 
had had the impertinence to push the Duke out of doors. The 
painter, all of a tremble, came forward and said — 



THE KEY-NOTE OF A SUCCESSFUL LIFE. 



429 



" It was I, my lord." 

"And pray," rejoined the Earl, "how came you to do it?" 

" By your orders, my lord." 

On this His Grace turned round to Lord Derby, and, smiling, 
drew a sovereign from his purse, and giving it to the painter, 
significantly said — 

" You were right." — Anonymous. 

THE KEY-NOTE OF A SUCCESSFUL LIFE. 



REV. DANIEL WISE, D. D. 




HEN the late learned Professor Joseph 
Henry, of the Smithsonian Institution, was 
a young man, he said, in a letter to a 
friend : — 

" My whole ambition is to establish for 
myself, and to deserve, the reputation of a 
man of science." 

That italicised phrase, " and to deserve," 
became the key-note of the then young man's life. It was a 
renunciation of sham, shallowness, show and hollow success ; 
a voluntary enlistment into the order of solid merit ; a deter- 
mination not to seek the honors and pecuniary rewards of high 
reputation as the prime end of life; a solemn purpose to win 
reputation, not by art or trickery, but by self-development, with 
its consequent power to do work worthy of praise and reward. 
To this grand key-note young Henry set the music of his 
subsequent life. It was not the fitful sound of the ^Eolian 
harp, floating on the charmed ear for a moment, and then lost 
in mid-air forever; but it was like an angelic voice which, 
once heard, remains in the memory an enchanting sound and 
a "joy forever." It made the young man a patient, persistent 
and industrious, thorough student, to whom attainment, 
whether recognized and rewarded or not, was solid wealth. 



430 



DEVOTION TO DUTY. 



Years after, when life was drawing to its close, and when his 
reputation was high and honorable throughout the wide realms 
of science, Professor Henry said, in an address to a learned 
society, that "the various offices of honor and responsibility 
which he then held, nine in number, had all been pressed upon 
him ; that he never occupied a position for which he had, of 
his own will and action, been made a candidate." 

This triumphal declaration, pardonable in one whose 
venerable brow was crowned with many laurels, was the justi- 
fication of his youthful self-consecration to the attainment of 
merit deserving reputation and reward. He had made it the 
business of his life to deserve success. The scientific world 
had discovered his merit, called him to honorable employ- 
ments, and engrossed his name on its roll of fame as a prince 
among scientists. 



CARDINAL WOLSEY TO THOMAS CROMWELL. 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 




^H8 



fcAY. then, farewell ! 

I have touched the highest point of all my greatness, 
And, from that full meridian of my glory, 
I haste now to my setting : I shall fall 
Like a bright exhalation in the evening, 
And no man see me more. 

So, farewell to the little good you bear me. 
Farewell, a long farewell, to all my greatness ! 
This is the state of man : to-day he puts forth 
The tender leaves of hope ; to-morrow, blossoms, 
And bears his blushing honors thick upon him ; 
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost ; 
And when he thinks — good, easy man — full surely 
His greatness is a ripening, nips his root, 
And then he falls, as I do. I have ventured, 
Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders, 
These many summers, in a sea of glory ; 



CARDINAL WOLSEY TO THOMAS CROMWELL. 431 

But far beyond my depth ; my high-blown pride 
At length broke under me ; and now has left me, 
Weary and old with service, to the mercy 
Of a rude stream, that must forever hide me. 

Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate ye ! 
I feel my heart new opened. Oh, how wretched 
Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favors ! 
There is, betwixt that smile he would aspire to, 
That sweet aspect of princes, and his ruin, 
More pangs and fears than wars or women have, 
And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer, 
Never to hope again ! 

Cromwell, I did not think to shed a tear 

In all my miseries ; but thou hast forced me, 

Out of thy honest truth, to play the woman. 

Let's dry our eyes : and thus far hear me Cromwell ; 

And when I am forgotten, as I shall be, 

And sleep in dull, cold marble, where no mention 

Of me must more be heard of — say, then, I taught thee — 

Say, Wolsey, that once trod the ways of glory, 

And sounded all the depths and shoals of honor, 

Found thee a way, out of his wreck, to rise in ; 

A sure and safe one, though thy master missed it. 

Mark but my fall, and that which ruined me ! 

Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition ! 

By that sin fell the angels : how can man, then, 

The image of his Maker, hope to win by't ? 

Love thyself last ; cherish those hearts that hate thee — 

Corruption wins not more than honesty ; 

Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace, 

To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not. 

Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's, 

Thy God's, and truth's : then, if thou fall'st, O Cromwell, 

Thou fall'st a blessed martyr ! Serve the king ; 

And, Prithee, lead me in : 

There, take an inventory of all I have, 

To the last penny ; 'tis the king's ; my robe, 

And my integrity to heaven, is all 

I dare now call mine own. O Cromwell, Cromwell ! 

Had I but served my God with half the zeal 

I served my king, he would not, in mine age, 

Have left me naked to mine enemies ! 



432 DEVOTION TO DUTY. 

PAUL BEFORE FESTUS AND AGRIPPA. 




GRIPPA said unto Paul, " thou art permitted to 
speak for thyself." Then Paul stretched forth 
his hand, and answered for himself: — 

" I think myself happy, King Agrippa, be- 
cause I shall answer for nryself this day, before 
thee, concerning all the things whereof I am 
accused by the Jews ; especially, as I know thee 
to be expert in all customs and questions which 
are among the Jews. Wherefore, I beseech thee to hear 
me patiently. 

." My manner of life from my youth, which was, at the first, 
among my own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews ; who 
knew me from the beginning (if they would testify), that after 
the straitest sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee. And now 
I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made by 
God to our fathers ; to which promise, our twelve tribes, con- 
tinually serving God day and night, hope to come ; and for 
this hope sake, King Agrippa, I am accused by the Jews. 

" Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, 
that God should raise the dead ? I verily thought with myself 
that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus 
of Nazareth ; and this I did in Jerusalem. Many of the saints 
I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief 
priests ; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice 
against them. And I often punished them in every synagogue, 
and compelled them to blaspheme ; and being exceedingly mad 
against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities. But 
as I went to Damascus, with authority and commission from 
the chief priests, at mid-day, O King ! I saw in the way a 
light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining 
round about me and them who journeyed with me. And 
when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking 
to me and saying, in the Hebrew tongue, ' Saul, Saul, why 



PAUL BEFORE FESTUS AND AGRIPPA. 433 

persecutest thou me ? It is hard for thee to kick against the 
pricks.' And I said, who art thou, Lord ? And he replied, 
' I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. But rise, and stand upon 
thy feet ; for I have appeared to thee for this purpose, to make 
thee a minister, and a witness both of these things which thou 
hast seen, and of those things in which I will appear to thee; 
delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, to 
whom I now send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them 
from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God ; 
that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance 
amongst them who are sanctified by faith that is in me.' 

" Whereupon, O King Agrippa ! I was not disobedient to 
the heavenly vision ; but showed first to them of Damascus, 
and at Jerusalem, and through all the coast of Judea, and then 
to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and 
do works meet for repentance. For these causes the Jews 
caught me in the temple, and went about to kill me. Having, 
however, obtained help from God, I continue to this day, wit- 
nessing, both to small and great, saying no other things than 
those which the prophets and Moses declared should come; 
that Christ should suffer ; that he would be the first who should 
rise from the dead ; and that he would show light to the people 
and to the Gentiles." 

And as he thus spoke for himself, Festus said, with a loud 
voice, " Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning hath 
made thee mad." But he replied : " I am not mad, most noble 
Festus, but speak the words of truth and soberness. For the 
king knoweth these things, before whom I also speak freely. 
I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him ; 
for this thing was not done in a corner. King Agrippa, 
believest thou the prophets ? I know that thou believest !" 
Then Agrippa said unto Paul, "Almost thou persuadest me to 
be a Christian." And Paul replied, " I would to God that not 
only thou but also all that hear me this day, were both almost 
and altogether such as I am, except these bonds." — Acts, 
chapter xxvi. 
28 



434 DEVOTION TO DUTY. 

THE VILLAGE PREACHER. 



OLIVER GOLDSMITH. 




A pen picture of his father, Rev. Charles Goldsmith, a Protestant clergyman in the little 
village of Pallasmore, County Longford, Ireland, at which place the author, Oliver Gold- 
smith, was born, November ioth, 1728. 

|EAR yonder copse, where once the garden smiled, 
And still where many a garden flower grows wild, 
There, where a few torn shrubs the place disclose, 
The village preacher's modest mansion rose ! 
A man, he was, to all the country dear, 
And passing rich with forty pounds a year. 

Remote from town, he ran his goodly race, 

Nor e'er had changed, nor wished to change, his place; 

Unpracticed he to fawn, or seek for power, 

By doctrines fashioned to the varying hour ; 

Far other aims his heart had learned to prize, 

More bent to raise the wretched than to rise. 



His house was known to all the vagrant train ; 
He chid their wanderings, but relieved their pain ; 
The long-remembered beggar was his guest, 
Whose beard descending swept his aged breast ; 
The ruined spendthrift, now no longer proud, 
Claimed kindred there, and had his claims allowed ; 
The broken soldier, kindly bade to stay, 
Sat by his fire, and talked the night away, 
Wept o'er his wounds, or, tales of sorrow done, 
Shouldered his crutch and showed how fields were won. 

Pleased with his guests, the good man learned to glow, 

And quite forget their vices in their woe ; 

Careless their merits or their faults to scan, 

His pity gave ere charity began. 

Thus to relieve the wretched was his pride, 

And e'en his failings leaned to virtue's side. 

But, in his duty prompt at every call, 
He watched and wept, he prayed and felt for all ; 
And, as a bird each fond endearment tries, 
To tempt its new-fledged offspring to the skies, 
He tried each art, reproved each dull delay, 
Allured to brighter worlds, and led the way. 



GREGORY, THE GREAT. 

Beside the bed where parting life was laid, 
And sorrow, guilt and pain by turns dismayed, 
The reverend champion stood. At his control, 
Despair and anguish fled the struggling soul ; 
Comfort came down the trembling wretch to raise, 
And his last falt'ring accents whispered praise. 

At church, with meek and unaffected grace, 

His looks adorned the venerable place ; 

Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway, 

And fools, who came to scoff, remained to pray. 

The service past, around the pious man, 

With steady zeal, each honest rustic ran ; 

Even children followed with endearing wile, 

And plucked his gown, to share the good man's smile. 

His ready smile a parent's warmth exprest ; 
Their welfare pleased him, and their cares distrest ; 
To them his heart, his love, his griefs were given, 
But all his serious thoughts had rest in heaven ; 
As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form, 
Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm, 
Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, 
Eternal sunshine settles on its head. 



435 




GREGORY, THE GREAT. 



AINT GREGORY, surnamed the Great, born 
of a noble family, in Rome, about 540 A. D., 
died in the year 604. His parents were 
patricians of great wealth. His father, Gar- 
dianus, renounced his senatorial rank, to 
become a clergyman, and when he died was 
one of the seven regionarii or cardinal dea- 
cons ; and his mother, Sylvia, devoted her- 
self, at the same time, to an ascetic life. To a commanding 
presence and affable manners Gregory united great learning 
and executive ability. He was appointed Governor or Prefect 
of Rome, about 573, but soon abdicated the office, withdrew 



436 DEVOTION TO DUTY. 

from the world, and after his father's death, employed his reve- 
nue in founding religious institutions, changing his own house 
on the Caelian Hill into a monastery, and becoming himself a 
monk in it. On seeing, one day, some handsome English 
youths exposed for sale in the market place, he exclaimed, 
"They would be angels rather than Angles, were they only 
Christians ! " Carried away by the desire of converting Eng- 
land, he besought the Pope to allow him to go thither; and he 
set out from Rome by night, but was followed and brought 
back by the people. 

Pope Pelagius, II, named him one of the seven regionary 
deacons, and shortly afterwards sent him as legate to Constan- 
tinople. He convinced the heretic Eutychius of his error, won 
the good graces of the Emperor Mauricius, and was recalled 
to Rome, about 585. During this period he wrote his Libra 
Moralium, a commentary on Job. 

In 590 the plague broke out in Rome, and Pope Pelagius 
having died of it, Gregory was unanimously chosen to fill his 
place. He wrote to the Emperor Mauricius, beseeching him 
not to ratify the election ; but the letter was intercepted by the 
Prefect of Rome, one of quite a different import despatched 
in its stead, and the consent of the Emperor obtained, without 
delay. Meanwhile Gregory had fled from Rome, and con- 
cealed himself; but his retreat was discovered, and on Septem- 
ber 3d, 590, he was consecrated in the Church of St. Peter. 
Pestilence and famine were desolating Italy at that time, and 
hostile armies were on the march toward Rome. He called 
his clergy around him, labored at their head night and day to 
stay the ravages of the plague, collected funds and purchased 
large stores of grain in Sicily, which brought back plenty to 
the city, and by his eloquence arrested the invasion of the ad- 
vancing Lombards. 

He bent his whole mind on reforming the abuses which had 
crept into the clerical body, many of which had become in- 
veterate, and sent missionaries to all parts of the known world. 
Among them Augustin and his companions went, by his order, 



GREGORY, THE GREAT. 437 

to England, which was soon converted to the faith. He ex- 
tinguished Arianism in Lombardy, and combated it incessantly 
in Spain, where he won over to orthodoxy the King Recared ; 
in Africa he put down the Donatists, and in Constantinople 
opposed energetically the pretensions of the patriarch, John 
the Abstinent, to the title of oecumenical patriarch, assuming 
as his own title that of" servant of the servants of God," which 
was adopted by the subsequent Bishops of Rome. 

Equally tolerant and zealous, while using every endeavor to 
spread the faith, he would have no other means employed for 
that purpose than those of an exemplary life and rational in- 
struction. He reprimanded the Bishop of Terracina, who 
would not permit the Jews to assemble for religious worship ; 
and he wrote in the same spirit to the Bishops of Sardinia, 
Sicily, and Marseilles. At Cagliari a converted Jew had 
changed a synagogue, which he owned, into a Christian 
church ; Gregory commanded that it be restored to its former 
use. He deplored the evils of slavery as it existed before his 
time, and seeing it aggravated by the barbarian wars, he 
emancipated all his own slaves, as an example. 

The following beautiful poem, entitled, " The Supper of St. 
Gregory," from the pen of the distinguished American poet, 
John G. Whittier, is taken from a recent number of Harper's 
Magazine : — 

A tale for Roman guides to tell, 

To careless, sight-worn travelers still, 
Who pause beside the narrow cell 

Of Gregory, on the Cselian Hill. 

One day, before the monk's door came 

A beggar, stretching empty palms, 
Fainting and fast-sick, in the name 

Of the Most Holy asking alms. 

And the monk answered : " All I have 

In this poor cell of mine I give, 
The silver cup my mother gave ; 

In Christ's name take thou it, and live." 



438 DEVOTION TO DUTY. 

Years passed ; and, called at last to bear 
The pastoral crook and keys of Rome, 

The poor monk, in St. Peter's chair 
Sat, the crowned lord of Christendom. 

"Prepare a feast," St. Gregory cried, 
"And let twelve beggars sit thereat ;" 
The twelve came, and one beside, 
An unknown stranger, with them sat. 

"I asked thee not," the Pontiff spake, 
" O stranger ; but if need be thine, 
I bid thee welcome, for the sake 

Of Him who is thy Lord and mine." 

A grave, calm face the stranger raised, 
Like His who on Gennesaret trod, 

Or His on whom the Chaldeans gazed, 
Whose form was as the Son of God. 

" Know'st thou," he said, " thy gift of old ? " 
And in the hand he lifted up, 
The Pontiff marveled to behold 
Once more his mother's silver cup. 

" Thy prayers and alms have risen, and bloom 
Sweetly among the flowers of heaven • 
I am the Wonderful, through whom 
Whate'er thou askest shall be given." 

* He spoke and vanished. Gregory fell, 

With his twelve guests, in mute accord, 
Prone on their faces, knowing well 
Their eyes of flesh had seen the Lord. 

The old-time legend is not vain : 
Nor vain thy art, Verona's Paul, 

Telling it o'er and o'er again 
On gray Vicenza's frescoed wall. 

Still, wheresoever pity shares 

Its bread with sorrow, want and sin, 

And love the beggar's feast prepares, 
The uninvited Guest comes in. 



A DESERVED REBUKE. 



439 



Unheard, because our ears are dull, 
Unseen, because our eyes are dim, 

He walks our earth, The Wonderful, 
And all good deeds are done to Him. 



A DESERVED REBUKE. 




SOMEWHAT unusual affair occurred in Phila- 
delphia on a recent occasion, when one woman 
brought one hundred and fifty young men to 
terms, at a medical clinic. Three of the fifteen 
students at the Woman's Medical College occu- 
pied seats in the lecture room, and while waiting 
for the lecturer, who was belated, the class 
indulged in some noisy demonstration, which 
was finally directed in the way of playful banter to the women 
present. Suddenly one of the female students, who is known 
as an eminent missionary in China, arose, and as she began to 
speak, the noise was changed to respectful silence. " Gentle- 
men," she said, " I have been for eighteen years a missionary 
in China. The Chinese have no medical science, and super- 
stitious rites are chiefly relied on in the treatment of disease. 
All the people are in need of medical aid, but the women are 
the neediest. A Chinese woman would under no circum- 
stances go to a male physician for the treatment of any disease 
peculiar to her sex. She would be prevented by her own 
womanly delicacy, and by all the notions of modesty held by 
those around her. She would suffer lifelong agony rather 
than violate her sense of propriety. Her father, her brothers 
and her husband would even let her die rather than allow her 
to be treated by a male physician. Full of sorrow for the 
sufferings of these women, I have been looking to Christian 
America to see what hope of help for them might be there. I 
have been glad to find that, in some of our great medical 
schools, earnest and self-sacrificing women are fitting them- 



440 



DEVOTION TO DUTY. 



selves for a work of mercy in Asia and other lands. Unless 
such women learn to do such work well there is no physical 
salvation for those afflicted ones. And in behalf of those 
women, who have no medical care while they so sorely need 
it, I ask from you the courtesy of gentlemen toward ladies 
who are studying medicine in Philadelphia." As the speaker 
sat down she was greeted with a cheer, and a member of the 
class, rising, assured the ladies, in a very gallant speech, that 
no annoyance to them was intended. The timely remarks had 
touched the inborn courtesy of the young men, and taught 
them a lesson they will probably never forget. — Anonymous. 



THE GREAT APOSTLE OF CHARITY. 




N looking back over the history of Europe 
during the trying times in the latter part of 
the eighteenth century, there comes into view 
a name that shines forth with an ever- 
increasing lustre as time rolls on — it is that 
of Jean Frederic Oberlin, the Great Apostle 
of Charity, of Ban de la Roche. 

His character, as displayed in the uniform 
tenor of his life, presented a remarkable com- 
bination of varied excellencies, for whilst much exalted sanc- 
tity and intrepid zeal were conspicuous, an unwearied ardor in 
doing good, and an habitual willingness to renounce his own 
interest in order to promote the well-being of his fellow- 
creatures, were equally evident. In addition to this, his ex- 
treme simplicity, conscientious integrity, sweetness of temper 
and refinement of manner, caused him to be ardently loved 
and sincerely revered; whilst his industry, his agricultural 
skill, his knowledge of rural and domestic economy, and the 
energy with which he carried his plans into effect the moment 



THE GREAT APOSTLE OF CHARITY. 441 

he was convinced of their utility, rendered him not only an 
example but a blessing to the people among whom he resided, 
and afforded a delightful proof of the advantages that may 
accrue from an enlightened and progressive union of secular 
and spiritual duties. 

The Ban de la Roche derives its name from a castle 
called La Roche, round which the Ban or district extends. 
It is a mountainous Canton in the Northeast of France, 
between Alsace and Lorraine, forming part of the declivities 
and western ramifications of the Haut Champ or Champ 
de Ten, an isolated range of mountains detached by a 
deep valley from the eastern boundary of the chain of the 
Vosges. 

The temperature varies extremely, according to the heights 
and position of the locality. On the summits of the moun- 
tains, for instance, the climate is as intensely cold as at 
St. Petersburg, though in the villages it is so soft and 
delightful as to resemble that of Geneva and parts of the 
Jura. The winter months generally commence in Septem- 
ber, and the snow usually remains undissolved till the fol- 
lowing May or June, when the wind blows from the south, 
thus leaving only a period of four or five months of summer 
weather. 

In the reign of Louis, XVI, the whole of this territory was 
in a most desolate state ; for, having been partially the seat of 
conflict during the " Thirty Years' War," and again, in the 
time of Louis, XIV, it was so laid waste as to be scarcely 
habitable, there being no road from one place to another, and 
but little land under cultivation. About eighty or a hundred 
families earned, indeed, a scanty subsistence on its precarious 
soil, but, being destitute of all the comforts of civilized life, 
they existed in a state of misery and degradation more easily 
conceived than described. 

This remote district partook, however, with the rest of 
Alsace, in a privilege denied to the ancient French provinces. 
When it was incorporated with France, it was stipulated in the 



442 DEVOTION TO DUTY. 

decree that its inhabitants should continue to enjoy an entire 
liberty of conscience, and whilst the persecuted Protestants of 
Languedoc and other parts of France could not find a 
sufficiently secure retreat for the celebration of their worship, 
they were privileged to have their own sanctuaries, and no 
restraint was laid upon their religious assemblies. 

Jean Frederic Oberlin, the subject of this article, was born 
in Strasburg, August 31st, 1 740, the same year in which were 
born his two young friends, Lavater and Yung-Stilling. His 
father was a professor in the Gymnase, or High School of 
Strasburg; he had seven sons, the eldest of whom, J. J. 
Oberlin, was the celebrated philologist and antiquarian, and 
the editor of an edition of Tacitus. Oberlin, the father, was a 
man of distinguished appearance, genial, enlightened, just and 
conscientious. Madam Oberlin was a person of good judg- 
ment and considerable cultivation. She wrote some good 
verses, and studied and delighted in poetry. This excellent 
couple brought up their family in correct principles, and in the 
fear of God. 

After having finished his studies in the Gymnasium, young 
Oberlin entered the Protestant Theological Seminary, at Stras- 
burg, which was then the most renowned in Europe. The 
circumstances that induced him to take Orders and devote 
himself to the gospel ministry are not definitely known ; but it 
appears from various memoranda found among his papers 
after his decease that he was, from his very infancy, the subject, 
not merely of pious convictions, but of holy affections toward 
the Heavenly Father. " During my infancy and my youth," 
he says, " God often vouchsafed to touch my heart, and 
draw me to himself. He bore with me in my repeated 
backslidings with a kindness and indulgence hardly to be 
expressed." 

After concluding a brilliant course at the seminary, he re- 
ceived the degree of Bachelor, in April, 1758, and in 1763 he 
was created a Doctor of Philosophy. He engaged himself as 
a tutor, for a time, in the family of a leading physician of 



THE GREA T APOSTLE OF CHARITY. 443 

Strasburg, but the work not being in harmony with his tastes 
he resigned the charge and devoted himself entirely to study. 
While thus engaged he received a visit from the venerable 
Stuber, of Ban de la Roche, who was anxiously looking 
around for a young man fitted to be his successor. Stuber had 
heard some report of Oberlin, and determined to judge for 
himself. The labors that Stuber had performed for some 
years in the sterile and poverty-stricken parish had worn him 
out, and now he wished to find some man of real apostolic 
zeal, devoid of all self-seeking, energetic and enlightened, to 
continue the work of civilization and evangelization, for which 
he himself, with great toil, had but cleared the ground. " You 
are the man I am seeking," said Stuber, laughing. He then 
sat down and explained to Oberlin the motive of his visit. 
Oberlin joyfully accepted his proposal, conscientiously, how- 
ever, insisting that each one of the other theological students 
of the university should be asked if he did not desire the place 
for himself; an unnecessary piece of courtesy, it seemed, for 
no one desired a banishment among the rude mountaineers of 
the Ban de la Roche. Having satisfied his mind on this point, 
he went forth with Stuber to look at his future home. He was 
touched and attracted by the primitive look of the inhabitants, 
by the evidence of the good already done by Stuber, and still 
more by the immense amount which remained to be done. 
Oberlin was invested with this pastorate in April, 1767, by 
M. de Voyer d'Argenson, the patron of the parish of Wald- 
bach. 

On entering upon his pastoral duties in this dreary and 
inhospitable spot, the first object of his provident activity was 
to secure good roads and to build bridges wherever needful, 
so that his parishioners might come in contact with the 
inhabitants of other districts more advanced in civilization, and 
at the same time have an outlet for their productions. Having, 
therefore, assembled the people, he proposed that they should 
blast the rocks to widen the road, and secure material for 
building a bridge across the Bruche at Rothen. The peasants 



444 DEVOTION TO DUTY. 

were perfectly astonished at this proposition, and no one 
seemed inclined to render any assistance until they saw him go 
to work, pick in hand. 

He had previously drafted his plans, and on seeing his de- 
termination they quickly fell in, and, in due course of time, 
good roads were laid out and a substantial bridge was built, 
which still bears the name of Le Pont de Charite. His next 
care was to procure good agricultural implements, and for this 
purpose he opened a warehouse, at Waldbach, where the 
peasants could supply themselves gradually, as their means 
permitted. Having now opened communication with the outer 
world, he devoted considerable attention to the soil and the 
raising of crops adapted to the particular locality. The culture 
of flax and the potato were especially encouraged. Also, a 
species of clover well suited for cattle. Besides the great 
improvements in agriculture, and in the mechanical arts, he 
introduced many new employments, such as cotton spinning, 
weaving and straw plaiting. Meanwhile he was not idle in 
other and more strictly educational and pastoral duties. He 
built school houses and encouraged the study of the pure 
French language. The dialect spoken on his arrival was 
a sort of an unintelligible patois. He prepared text-books, 
drilled teachers, preached, and performed many sorts of 
manual labor, to show his people the best and most advan- 
tageous methods. They were so utterly demoralized and 
disheartened by their years of misfortune, that it seemed 
as though they were unable to adapt themselves, with any 
skill or facility, to the most ordinary occupations of daily 
life. 

The year following his entrance upon his pastoral duties he 
married a most estimable young woman, Salome de Witter, 
who proved a very valuable help-meet and assistant in his 
future labors. When, in later years, he commenced establish- 
ing infant schools, he was still further supplemented in his 
labors by the assistance of the noted Louisa Schepler, who 
was originally a servant in his family. 



THE GREAT APOSTLE OF CHARITY. 445 

He had entered a veritable desert, and in the course of years 
he made it blossom like the rose. The reputation of his parish 
spread abroad, and many refugees sought a retreat here, and 
in various ways it received accessions, and increased in popu- 
lation and thrift. His system of agriculture, in due time, 
attracted the attention of the French government and obtained 
recognition and protection. Even during the stormy times of 
the Reign of Terror this peaceful, happy and secluded spot 
was but slightly convulsed. Men from far and near, and in 
high places, recognized his worth, his untiring labors, his self- 
denial, his intelligence; and these characteristics seemed to be 
the bulwarks of his parish. The French government eventually 
created him a "Knight of the Legion of Honor." After the 
death of his wife, Louisa Schepler took charge of his house- 
hold and children, and also of the mission work and infant 
schools. For her labors in the latter field, which she con- 
tinued after pastor Oberlin's death, and to the end of her own 
life, with singular success and fidelity, the famous Academie 
Frangaise bestowed on her the "Prix de Vertu " of 5000 francs, 
founded by M. de Monthoyon. 

In his later years Oberlin was incapacitated from much 
pastoral work by reason of the infirmities of old age, but he 
had the satisfaction of seeing it progress under the care and 
management of his devoted son-in-law, M. Graff. 

Oberlin died, after a brief illness, on the thirty-first of May, 
1826, at the ripe old age of 86 years. He was interred in the 
church-yard at Waldbach, near his beloved wife and his son, 
both of whom had died some years before. 

The fame of this "Great Apostle of Charity" is so wide- 
spread that the " Presbytere," or parsonage of Ban de la Roche, 
at Waldbach, has become a sort of shrine for visitors from all 
parts of the Christian world. His real greatness lay not en- 
tirely in what he personally accomplished, but in the inspira- 
tion his life and conduct afforded to stimulate others to help 
themselves, and to labor for the benefit of helpless and down- 
trodden humanity. — Life of Oberlin. 



446 DEVOTION TO DUTY. 

"NOT WEARY IN WELL-DOING." 




VERY one who has read the later histories of 
reformatories must see in these words that 
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (born in Zurich, 
Switzerland, in 1748 ; died, in 1827, in Brugg) 
had seized the right principle ; that he pos- 
sessed also the self-sacrifice that it demanded. 
The children got into orderly ways. They 
learned with some rapidity; the better class 
returned his loving care by obedience and good habits. Mean- 
while, poor relations came clamorously round the cloister walls 
wherein he was conducting his school ; they considered that 
they had done the schoolmaster a compliment by letting him 
keep the children; they insisted on being paid an equivalent 
to what the children would have got by begging. They were 
rude; spoke loud; hated the intruder; set him down as an 
educational speculator. So it lasted for a year, and then the 
cloister rang with French arms, and Pestalozzi went his way. 
"Did you see how wretched the man looked, to-day ? " said 
one. "Ay, ay; I am sorry for the poor fool." "So am I; but 
there is no hope for him but the grave." "True, neighbor; 
the best we can wish him is to die." "That," says Pestalozzi, 
"was the reward for my work at Stanz, Switzerland." Yet the 
last glimpse we have of him is in a public reformatory. More 
than twenty years before he went to Stanz, he might have been 
seen daily among a crowd of beggar children in his house at 
Neudorf. He made a few discoveries in teaching, spent his 
little fortune, and broke up the establishment. More than 
twenty years after the folk at Stanz had wished him in his 
grave, he stood among a crowd of children at Beuggen, the 
silver-haired old man who had been feted by all Europe. The 
children welcomed him by singing ; they reached him an oaken 
wreath. He put it gently away, saying, " Crowns are not for 
me, but for the innocent." Then they sang him a hymn out 



VOLTAIRE AND WILBERFORCE. 



447 



of his " Lienhard and Gertrud," till the tears stood in his eyes, 
and with choking voice and broken words he hurried out of 
the room. He had outlived all his projects ; but his deep 
human love, his desire to succor the wretched, lived in him, 
warm and impulsive as ever. It had been his wish that 
" another generation would take up his broken strivings and 
reach his aim, while he lay in the grave." And at Beuggen 
he saw part of that wish accomplished, and was content. 

— Stevenson's " Working and Praying :" 



VOLTAIRE AND WILBERFORCE. 



WILLIAM B. SPRAGUE. 




ET me now, for a moment, show you what 
the two systems — Atheism and Christianity 
— can do, have done, for individual char- 
acter ; and I can think of no two names to 
which I may refer with more confidence, in 
the way of illustration, than Voltaire and 
Wilberforce ; both of them names which 
stand out with prominence. 
Voltaire was, perhaps, the master-spirit in the school of 
French Atheism ; and though he was not alive to participate 
in the horrors of the Revolution, probably he did more, by his 
writings, to combine the elements for that tremendous tempest, 
than any other man. And now I undertake to say that you 
may draw a character in which there shall be as much of the 
blackness of moral turpitude as your imagination can supply, 
and yet you shall not have exceeded the reality as it was found 
in the character of this apostle of Atheism. You may throw 
into it the darkest shades of selfishness, making the man a 
perfect idolater of himself; you may paint the serpent in his 
most wily form, to represent deceit and cunning ; you may let 



448 DEVOTION TO DUTY. 

sensuality stand forth in all the loathsomeness of a beast in the 
mire ; you may bring out envy and malice, and all the baser 
and darker passions, drawing nutriment from the pit ; and when 
you have done this, you may contemplate the character of 
Voltaire, and exclaim, "here is the monstrous original!" 
The fires of his genius kindled only to wither and consume. 
He stood, for almost a century, a great tree of poison, not only 
cumbering the ground, but infusing death into the atmosphere; 
and though its foliage has long since dropped off, and its 
branches have withered, and its trunk fallen, under the hand 
of time, its deadly root still remains ; and the very earth that 
nourishes it is cursed for its sake. 

And now I will speak of Wilberforce ; and I do it with 
gratitude and triumph — gratitude to the God who made him 
what he was ; triumph that there is that in his very name 
which ought to make Atheism turn pale. Wilberforce was the 
friend of man; Wilberforce was the friend of enslaved and 
wretched man. Wilberforce (for I love to repeat his name) 
consecrated the energies of his whole life to one of the noblest 
objects of benevolence; it was in the cause of injured Africa 
that he often passed the night in intense and wakeful thought; 
that he counseled with the wise, and reasoned with the un- 
believing, and expostulated with the unmerciful ; that his heart 
burst forth with all its melting tenderness, and his genius with 
all its electric fire ; that he turned the most accidental meeting 
into a conference for the relief of human woe, and converted 
even the Senate House into a theatre of benevolent action. 
Though his zeal had at one time almost eaten him up, and the 
vigor of his frame was so far gone that he stooped over and 
looked into his own grave, yet his faith failed not ; and, blessed 
be God, the vital spark was kindled up anew, and he kept on 
laboring through a long succession of years ; and at last, just 
as his friends were gathering around him to receive his last 
whisper, and the angels were waiting to receive his de- 
parting spirit, the news, worthy to be borne by angels, was 
brought him, that the object to which his life had been given 



PRINCE 'S BLOOD FOR OXEN' S BLO OD. 449 

was gained ; and then, Simeon-like, he clasped his hands to 
die, and went off to heaven with the sound of deliverance to 
the captive, vibrating sweetly upon his ear. 

Both Voltaire and Wilberforce are dead ; but each of them 
lives in the character he has left behind him. And now who 
does not delight to honor the character of the one ? Who 
does not shudder to contemplate the character of the other? 



"PRINCES' BLOOD FOR OXEN'S BLOOD!" 




GERMAN lady, descended of a family long re- 
nowned for valiant feats of arms, and which had 
already given an emperor to Germany, on a 
particular occasion made the formidable Duke 
of Alva tremble by her bold and resolute con- 
duct. As the Emperor Charles, V, on his return, 
in the year 1547, from the battle of Muehlberg 
to his camp in Swabia, passed through Thuringia, 
Catharine, Countess Dowager of Schwartzburg, born princess 
of Henneberg, obtained of him a letter of safeguard, that her 
subjects might have nothing to suffer from the Spanish army 
on its march through her territories ; in return for which she 
bound herself to supply the Spanish troops, which were trans- 
ferred to Rudolstadt on the Saalbruecke, with bread, beer and 
other provisions, at a reasonable price, in that place. 

At the same time she took the precaution to have the bridge, 
which stood close to the town, demolished in all haste, and 
reconstructed on the river at a considerable distance, that the 
too great proximity of the city might be no temptation to her 
rapacious guests. The inhabitants, too, of all the places 
through which the Spanish army was to pass were informed 
that they might send the chief of their valuables to the Castle 
of Rudolstadt. Meantime, the Spanish General, attended by 
Prince Henry, of Brunswick, and his sons, approached the city 
29 



450 DEVOTION TO DUTY. 

and invited themselves, by a messenger whom they dispatched 
before, to take their morning's repast with the Countess of 
Schwartzburg. So modest a request, made at the head of an 
army, was not to be rejected; the answer returned was that 
they should be kindly supplied with what the house afforded ; 
that His Excellency might come and be assured of a welcome 
reception. 

However, she did not neglect, at the same time, to remind 
the Spanish General of the safeguard, and to urge him to a 
conscientious observance of it. A friendly reception and a 
well-furnished table welcomed the arrival of the Duke at the 
Castle. He was obliged to confess that the Thuringian ladies 
had an excellent notion of cookery, and did honor to the laws 
of hospitality. But scarcely had they taken their seats, when 
a messenger, out of breath, called the Countess from the hall. 
His tidings informed her that the Spanish soldiers had used 
violence in some villages on the way, and had driven off the 
cattle belonging to the peasants. Catharine was a true mother 
to her people ; whatever the poorest of her subjects suffered 
wounded her to the very quick. 

Full of indignation at this breach of faith, yet not forsaken 
by her presence of mind, she ordered her whole retinue to arm 
themselves immediately, in private, and to bolt and bar all the 
gates of the castle; which done, she returned to the hall and 
rejoined the princes, who were still at table. Here she com- 
plained to them, in the most moving terms, of the usage she had 
met with, and how badly the imperial word was kept. They 
told her, laughing, that this was the custom of war, and that 
such trifling disorders of soldiers in marching through a place 
were not to be minded. " That we shall presently see," replied 
she, stoutly; " my poor subjects must have their own again; 
or, by God! princes' blood for oxen's blood!" With this 
emphatic declaration, she quitted the room, which, in a few 
moments, was filled with armed men, who, sword in hand, yet 
with great reverence, planting themselves behind the chairs of 
the princes, took the place of the waiters. On the entrance of 



PRINCE'S BLOOD FOR OXEN'S BLOOD. 451 

these fierce-looking fellows, Duke Alva directly changed color, 
and they all gazed at one another in silence and affright. 

Cut off from the army, surrounded by a body of resolute 
men, what had they to do but to summon up their patience 
and appease the offended lady on the best terms they could. 
Henry, of Brunswick, was the first that collected his spirits, 
and smothered his feelings by bursting into a loud fit of 
laughter, thus seizing the most reasonable way of coming off 
by turning all that had passed into a subject of mirth, con- 
cluding with a pompous panegyric on the patriotic concern 
and the determined intrepidity she had shown. He entreated 
her to make herself easy, and took it upon himself to bring the 
Duke of Alva to consent to whatever should be found reason- 
able, which he immediately effected by inducing the latter to 
dispatch, on the spot, an order to the army to restore the cattle, 
without delay, to the persons from whom they had been stolen. 
On the return of the courier, with a certificate that all damages 
were made good, the Countess of Schwartzburg politely 
thanked her guests for the honor they had done her castle, and 
they, in return, very courteously took their leave. It was this 
transaction, no doubt, that procured for Catharine, Countess of 
Schwartzburg, the surname of Heroic. She is likewise highly 
extolled for the active fortitude she displayed in promoting 
the Reformation throughout her dominions, which had already 
been introduced by her husband, Earl Henry, as well as for 
her resolute perseverance in putting down the monks and 
improving the instructions of the schools. Numbers of 
Protestant preachers who had sustained persecution on account 
of religion fled to her for protection and support, which she 
granted them in the fullest extent. Among these was a certain 
Casper Aguilla, a parish priest at Saalfeldt, who in his younger 
years had attended the Emperor's army to the Netherlands, in 
quality of chaplain, and because he there refused to baptize a 
cannon ball, was fastened to the mouth of a mortar by the 
licentious soldiery, to be shot into the air, a fate which he 
happily avoided only by the accident of the powder not catch- 



452 



DEVOTION TO DUTY. 



ing fire. He was now a second time in imminent danger of 
his life, and a price of five thousand florins was set upon his 
head, because the Emperor was enraged against him for 
having contumeliously attacked his " Interim" from the pulpit. 
Catharine privately brought him to her castle, on the petition 
of the people of Saalfeldt, where she kept him many months 
concealed, and caused him to be attended with the greatest 
assiduity till the storm was blown over and he could venture 
to appear in public. She died, universally honored and 
lamented, in the fifty-eighth year of her age and the twenty- 
ninth of her reign. — Adapted from the German of Schiller. 



INDIAN FORTITUDE. 




OU have taken me prisoner, with all my 
warriors. I am much grieved ; for I ex- 
pected, if I did not defeat you, to hold out 
much longer, and give you more trouble 
before I surrendered. I tried hard to bring 
you into ambush, but your last general 
understood Indian fighting. I determined 
to rush upon you, and fight you face to 
face ; I fought hard, but your guns were well aimed. The 
bullets flew like birds in the air, and whizzed by our ears like 
the wind through the trees in winter. My warriors fell around 
me ; it began to look dismal. I saw my evil day at hand. The 
sun rose dim on us in the morning, and at night sank in a dark 
cloud, and looked like a ball of fire. That was the last sun 
that shone on Black Hawk. His heart is dead, and no longer 
beats quick in his bosom. He is now a prisoner to the white 
men ; they will do with him as they wish. But he can stand 
torture, and is not afraid of death. He is no coward ; Black 
Hawk is an Indian. He has done nothing for which an Indian 
ought to be ashamed. He has fought for his countrymen 



INDIAN FORTITUDE. 453 

against white men who came, year after year, to cheat them 
and to take away their lands. You know the cause of our 
making war ; it is known to all white men ; they ought to be 
ashamed of it. 

The white men despise the Indians, and drive them from 
their homes. They smile in the face of the poor Indian, to 
cheat him ; they shake him by the hand, to gain his confidence, 
to make him drunk, to deceive him. 

We told them to let us alone, and to keep away from us ; but 
they followed on and beset our paths, and they coiled them- 
selves among us, like the snake. They poisoned us by the 
touch. We were not safe. We lived in danger. We looked 
to the Great Spirit. We went to our father. We were 
encouraged. His great council gave us fair words and big 
promises ; but we got no satisfaction ; things were growing 
worse. There were no deer in the forest. The opossum 
and the beaver were fled. The springs drying up, and 
our squaws and pappooses without victuals to keep them 
from starving. 

We called a great council, and built a large fire. The spirit 
of our father arose, and spoke to us to avenge our wrongs, or 
die. We set up the war-whoop and dug up the tomahawk ; 
our knives were ready, and the heart of Black Hawk swelled 
high in his bosom, when he led his warriors to battle. He is 
satisfied. He will go to the world of spirits contented. He 
has done his duty. His father will meet him there and com- 
mend him. Black Hawk is a true Indian, and disdains to cry 
like a woman. He feels for his wife, his children and his 
friends ; but he does not care for himself. He cares for the 
nation and the Indians ; they will suffer. He laments their 
fate. Farewell, my nation ! Black Hawk tried to save you, 
and avenge your wrongs. He drank the blood of some of the 
whites. He has been taken prisoner, and his plans are crushed. 
He can do no more. He is near his end. His sun is setting 
and he will rise no more. Farewell to Black Hawk ! 

— Address of Black Hawk to Gen. Street. 



454 DEVOTION TO DUTY. 

FORTITUDE OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS OF 
NEW ENGLAND. 



RUFUS CHOATE. 




N a late undesigned visit to Plymouth, I sought 
the spot where the earlier dead of the Pil- 
grims were buried. It was on a bank, you 
remember, somewhat elevated, below the 
town and between it and the water, near and 
looking forth upon the waves, symbol of 
what life had been to them; ascending inland, 
behind and above the rocks, a symbol of that 
rock of ages on which the dying had rested 
in the final hour. As the Pilgrims found these localities, you 
might stand on that bank and hear the restless waters chafe 
and melt against its steadfast base: the unquiet of the world 
composed itself at the portals of the grave. On that spot were 
laid together — the earth carefully smoothed down, that the 
Indians might not count the number — the true, the pious, the 
beautiful and the brave — till the heavens be no more. There 
certainly was buried the first governor; and there was buried 
Rose, the wife of Miles Standish. "You will go to them," 
wrote Robinson, "but they shall not return to you." 

When this sharp calamity had abated, came famine. "I 
have seen," said Edward Winslow, quoted by Bancroft, "Strong 
men staggering, through faintness for want of food ;" and after 
this, and during all this, and for years, there brooded in every 
mind not a weak fear, but an intelligent apprehension that at 
any instant — at midnight, at noonday, at the marriage, the 
baptism, or the burial of dead, a foe more cruel than the grave 
might blast in an hour that which disease and want had so 
hardly spared. 

How they endured all this you have also heard. Let one 
fact suffice. When, in April, the Mayflower sailed for Eng- 
land, not one Pilgrim returned in her! 



FORTITUDE OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 455 

The peculiarity" which has seemed to me to distinguish these 
trials of the Pilgrim age from the chief of those which the 
general voice of literature has concurred to glorify, as the trials 
of heroism; the peculiarity which gives to these and such as 
these the attributes of a truer heroism, is this ; that they had 
to meet them on what was then an humble, obscure and 
distant stage; with no numerous audience to look on and 
applaud, and cast its wreaths on the fainting brow of him 
whose life was rushing with his blood; and unsustained by 
one of those stormier and more stimulating impulses, and aims 
and sentiments, which carry a soldier to his grave of honor as 
joyfully as to the bridal bed. 

Where were the Pilgrims, while in the furnace of affliction, 
and who saw and took note of them ? They were alone on 
the earth! Directly and solely "in their great taskmaster's 
eye." If every one of them had died the first winter, of lung 
fever, or been starved to death or crushed by the tomahawk, 
who was there, to mourn for them? A few hearts in Leyden 
would have broken, and that had been all. Unlike the 
martyr, even, around whose ascended chariot wheels and 
horses of fire a congregation might come to sympathize and 
be exalted, blasphemers to be defied and struck with unwonted 
admiration — they were alone on the earth. Primeval forests, 
a winter's sea, a winter's sky, circled them about, and excluded 
every sympathizing eye. 

To play the part of heroism on its high places and its 
theatre, is not, perhaps, so very difficult. To do it alone, as 
seeing him who is invisible, was the stupendous trial of the 
Pilgrim heroism. 

I have said, too, that a peculiarity of their trials was, that 
they were unsustained altogether by every one of the passions, 
aims, stimulants and excitations; the anger, the revenge, the 
hate, the pride, the awakened and dreadful thirst of blood, the 
consuming love of glory, the feverish rapture of battle, that 
burn, as on volcanic isles, in the heart of mere secularized 
heroism. Not one of all these aids did or could come in use 



456 



DEVOTION TO DUTY. 



for them; their character and their situation both excluded 
them. Their enemies were disease walking in darkness and 
destroying at noonday; famine, which, more than all other 
calamities, bows the spirit of a man, presses his radiant form 
to the dust, and teaches him what he is; the wilderness; 
spiritual foes on the high places of the unseen world. Even 
when the first Indian was killed, the exclamation of Robinson 
was, " Oh that you had converted some before you had slain 
any!" 

Now, I say, the heroism which, in a great cause, can look 
all the more terrible ills that flesh is heir to calmly in the 
face, and can tread them out, as sparks under its feet, without 
these aids, is at least as lofty a quality as that which cannot. 

To my eye, as I look back, it looms on the shores of the past 
with a more towering and attractive grandeur. It seems to 
me to speak, from our far ancestral life, a higher lesson to a 
nobler nature. 



BOURDALOUE BEFORE THE KING. 



REV. C. M. BUTLER, D. D. 




HEN we recollect before whom Bourdaloue 
preached ; that he had for his auditors the 
most luxurious court in Europe, and a 
monarch abandoned to ambition and pleas- 
ure, we shall find it impossible not to honor 
the preacher for the dignified simplicity 
with which he uniformly held up to his 
audience the severity of the Gospel and 
the scandal of the cross. 
In one of the sermons which he preached before the monarch, 
he described, with matchless eloquence, the horrors of a licen- 
tious life, its abomination in the eye of God, its scandal to man, 
and the public and private evils which attend it, but he managed 



BOURDALOUE BEFORE THE KING. 457 

his discourse with so much address, that he kept the King from 
suspecting that the thunder of the preacher was ultimately to 
fall upon him. 

In general, Bourdaloue spoke in a level tone of voice, with 
no gesticulation, and with his eyes almost shut. On this 
occasion, having wound up the attention of the monarch and 
the audience to the highest pitch, he paused. The audience 
expected something terrible, and seemed to fear the next word. 
The pause continued for some time ; at length, the preacher, 
fixing his eyes directly on his royal hearer, and in a tone of 
voice equally expressive of horror and concern, said, in the 
words of the prophet, " thou art the man!" then, leaving these 
words to their effect, he concluded with a mild and gentle 
prayer to heaven for the conversion of all sinners. A miser- 
able courtier observed, in a whisper, to the monarch, that the 
boldness of the preacher exceeded all bounds, and should be 
checked. " No, sir," replied the monarch, " the preacher has 
done his duty, let us do ours." When the service was con- 
cluded, the monarch walked slowly from the church, and 
ordered Bourdaloue into his presence. He remarked to him 
his general protection of religion, the kindness which he had 
ever shown to the Society of Jesus, his particular favor to 
Bourdaloue and his friends. He then reproached him with the 
strong language of the sermon, and asked him what could 
be his motive for insulting him thus publicly before his 
subjects ! 

Bourdaloue fell on his knees : " God is my witness," said he, 
"that it was not my wish to insult your Majesty; but I am a 
minister of God, and must not disguise his truths. What I 
said in my sermon is my morning and evening prayer : may 
God, in His infinite mercy, grant me to see the day when the 
greatest of kings shall be the holiest." The monarch was 
affected, and silently dismissed the preacher; but from this 
time the court began to observe that change which afterward, 
and at no distant period, led Louis to a life of regularity and 
virtue. 



458 DEVOTION TO DUTY. 

A BENEVOLENT AND WONDERFUL MAN. 




ENJAMIN Franklin's predominant passion seems 
to have been the love of the useful. The useful 
was to him the summiini bonum, the supremely 
fair, the sublime and beautiful, which it may not, 
perhaps, be extravagant to believe he was in 
quest of every week for half a century. No de- 
partment was too plain or humble for him to 
occupy himself in for this purpose ; and, in 
affairs of the most unambitious order, this was still systematic- 
ally his object. Whether in the construction of chimneys or 
of constitutions, lecturing on the saving of candles or on the 
economy of national revenues, he still was intent on the same 
end ; the question always being how to obtain the most of 
solid, tangible advantage by the plainest and easiest means. 

There has rarely been a mortal of high intelligence and 
flattering fame on whom the pomps of life were so powerless. 
On him was completely thrown away the oratorical and poetical 
heroics about glory, of which heroics it was enough that he easily 
perceived the intention or effect to be to explode all sober truth 
and substantial good, and to impel men, through some career of 
vanity, in mad pursuit of what amounts, at last, if attained, to 
some certain quantity of noise, and intoxicated transient elation. 
It will not be his fault if the citizens of America shall ever 
become so servile to European example as to think a multi- 
tude of supernumerary places, enormous salaries and a 
privileged order, a necessary security or decoration of that 
political liberty which they enjoy in preeminence above every 
other nation on earth. In the letters of their patriarch and 
philosopher, they will be amply warned, by repeated and em- 
phatic representations, of the desperate mischief of a political 
system in which the public resources shall be expended in a 
way to give the government both the interest and the means 
to corrupt the people. John Foster. 




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"Flesh, of my flesh, 
Sone of my bone thou art, and from thy state 
Mine never shall be parted, bliss or tvne." 

—Milton's "Paradise Lost." 



PART IX. 



FIDELITY a HOME § KINDRED. 



KING PRIAM, OF TROY, AND ACHILLES. 




FTER the conflict on the Scamander, all the 
Trojans fled behind their walls, except Hector, 
who remained outside to do battle with Achilles, 
by whom he was ultimately slain. 

In a previous encounter, Hector had slain 
Patroclus, the friend of Achilles, and now, in 
order to further avenge his death, he attaches 
Hector's dead body to his chariot and drags it 
thrice round the walls of Troy, in sight of King Priam and 
Hecuba, the father and mother of Hector. 

Shocked at these indignities to his brave son's body, and 
impelled by the still stronger ties of parental affection, the old 
King resolves to visit Achilles in his camp, and attempt its 
ransom. He sets forth in his chariot, with a wagon loaded 
with presents, under charge of Idaeus, the herald. 

On reaching his pavilion, Priam finds Achilles at table, casts 
himself at his feet, and begs for the body of his son. 

Moved with compassion, Achilles grants his request, prepares 
a feast in his honor, detains him one night in his tent, and the 
next morning sends him home with the body. 

He also grants the Trojans a truce of twelve days in which 

461 



462 FIDELITY TO HOME AND KINDRED. 

to perform appropriate funeral services, before renewing hos- 
tilities. The opening scene represents the old King in the tent 
of Achilles. 



Priam. 



Ah think ; thou favored of the powers divine ! 

Think of thy father's age, and pity mine ! 

In me that father's reverend image trace, 

Those silver hairs, that venerable face ; 

His trembling limbs, his helpless person see ! 

In all my equal, but in misery ! 

Yet now, perhaps, some turn of human fate 

Expels him, helpless, from his peaceful state ; 

Think, from some powerful foe thou see'st him fly, 

And beg protection with a feeble cry. 

Yet still one comfort in his soul may rise ; 

He hears his son still lives to glad his eyes, 

And, hearing, still may hope a better day 

May send him thee, to chase that foe away. 

No comfort to my griefs, no hopes remain ; 
The best, the bravest, of my sons is slain ! 
Yet what a race ! Ere Greece to Ilion came, 
The pledge of many a loved and loving dame ; • 
Nineteen one mother bore — dead, all are dead! 
How oft, alas ! has wretched Priam bled ! 
Still one was left their loss to recompense ; 
His father's hope, his country's last defence. 
Him too thy rage has slain ! beneath thy steel, 
Unhappy, in his country's cause he fell ! 
For him, through hostile camps I bent my way, 
For him, thus prostrate at thy feet I lay • 
Large gifts, proportioned to thy wrath, I bear ; 
O hear the wretched, and the gods revere ! 
Think of thy father, and this face behold ! 
See him in me, as helpless and as old ! 
Though not so wretched ; there he yields to me, 
The first of men in sovereign misery ! 
Thus forced to kneel, thus groveling to embrace 
The scourge and ruin of my real and race ; 
Suppliant my children's murderer to implore, 
And kiss those hands yet reeking with their gore ! 



Achilles. 



Priam. 



KING PRIAM, OF TROY, AND ACHILLES. 

Alas, what weight of anguish hast thou known, 
Unhappy prince ! thus guardless and alone 
To pass through foes, and thus undaunted face 
The man whose fury has destroyed thy race ! 
Heaven sure has armed thee with a heart Of steel, 
A strength proportioned to the woes you feel. 
Rise, then ' let reason mitigate your care ; 
To mourn avails not : man is born to bear. 
Such is, alas ! the gods' severe decree ; 
They, only they are blest, and only free. 
Two urns by Jove's high throne have ever stood, 
The source of evil one, and one of good ; 
From thence, the cup of mortal man he fills — 
Blessings to these, to those distributes ills; 
To most, he mingles both ; the wretch decreed 
To taste the bad unmixed, is cursed indeed ; 
Pursued by wrongs, by meagre famine driven, 
He wanders, outcast both of earth and heaven. 
The happiest taste not happiness sincere, 
But find the cordial draught is dashed with care. 
Thou too, old man, hast happier days beheld ; 
In riches once, in children once excelled ; 
Extended Phrygia owned thy ample reign, 
And all fair Lesbos's blissful seats contain, 
And all wide Hellespont's unmeasured main. 
But since the god his hand has pleased to turn, 
And fill thy measure from the bitter urn, 
What sees the sun but hapless heroes' falls ? 
War, and the blood of men surround thy walls ! 
What must be, must be. Bear thy lot, nor shed 
These unavailing sorrows o'er the dead ; 
Thou can'st not call him from the Stygian shore, 
But thou, alas! may'st live to suffer more !" 



O favored of the skies ! 
Here let me grow to earth! since Hector lies 
On the bare beach, deprived of obsequies ; 
O give me Hector; to my eyes restore 
His corse, and take the gifts ; I ask no more. 
Thou, as thou may'st, these boundless stores enjoy ; 
Safe may'st thou sail, and turn thy wrath from Troy ; 



463 



464 FIDELITY TO HOME AND KINDRED. 

So shall thy pity and forbearance give 
A weak old man the light, and live ! 



Achilles. 



Lo ! to thy prayer, restored thy breathless son ; 
Extended on the funeral couch he lies; 
And soon as morning paints the eastern skies, 
The sight is granted to thy longing eyes ; 
But now the peaceful hours of sacred night 
Demand reflection, and to rest invite ; 
Nor thou, O father ! thus consumed with woe, 
The common cares that nourish life forego. 
[He orders a feast spread, of which Priam partakes heartily.) 



Priam. 



Achilles. 



Priam. 



Permit me now, beloved of Jove ! to steep 
My careful temples in the dew of sleep ; 
For, since the day that numbered with the dead 
My hapless son, the dust has been my bed ; 
Soft sleep a stranger to my weeping eyes ; 
My only food my sorrows and my sighs ! 
Till now ; encouraged by the grace you give, 
I share thy banquet and content to live. 



Now, father, sleep, but sleep not here ; 
Consult thy safety, and forgive my fear, 
Lest any argive, at this hour awake, 
To ask our counsel or our order take, 
Approaching sudden to our opened tent, 
Perchance behold thee, and our grace prevent 
Should such report thy honored person here 
The king of men the ransom might defer ; 
But say, with speed, if aught of thy desire 
Remains unask'd ; what time the rites require 
To inter thy Hector ? For, so long we stay 
Our slaughtering arm, and bid the hosts obey. 



If then thy will permit 
To finish all our honors to the dead, 
This of thy grace accord ; to thee are known 
The fears of Ilion, closed within her town ; 



"HE LIES CONCEALED HERE." 465 

And at what distance from our walls aspire 

The hills of Ide, and forests for the fire ! 

Nine days to vent our sorrows I request, 

The tenth shall see the funeral and the feast ; 

The next, to raise his monument be given ; 

The twelfth we war, if war be doomed by heaven ! 

— Ho7ner's Iliad — Alexander Pope's Translation. 



"HE LIES CONCEALED HERE." 




URING the troubles in Poland which fol- 
lowed the revolution of Thaddeus Kosci- 
usko, many of the truest and best of the 
sons of that ill-fated country were forced to 
flee for their lives, forsaking home and 
friends. Of those who had been most 
eager for the liberty of Poland and most 
bitter in enmity against Russia was Michael 
Sobieski, whose ancestor had been king one hundred and fifty 
years ago. 

Sobieski had three sons in the patriotic ranks; and father 
and sons had been of those who had persisted in what the 
Russians had been pleased to term rebellion, and a price had 
been set upon their heads. 

The Archduke Constantine was eager to apprehend Michael 
Sobieski, and learned that the wife of the Polish hero was at 
home in Cracow; and he waited upon her. 

" Madame," he said, speaking politely, for the lady was 
queenly and beautiful, " I think you know where your hus- 
band and sons are hiding?" 
"I know, sir." 

"If you will tell me where your husband is, your sons shall 
be pardoned." 

"And shall I be safe?" 

" Yes, madame, I swear it. Tell me where your husband is 
30 



466 FIDELITY TO HOME AND KINDRED. 

concealed, and both you and your sons shall be safe and 
unharmed." 

"Then, sir," said the noble woman, rising with a dignity 
sublime, and laying her hand upon her bosom, " he lies con- 
cealed here — in the heart of his wife — and you will have to 
tear this heart out to find him." 

Tyrant as he was, the Archduke admired the answer, and the 
spirit which had inspired it; and, deeming the good will of 
such a woman worth securing, he forthwith published a full 
pardon for the father and sons. — Anonymous. 



RIZPAH. 




WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 



ND he delivered them into the hands of the 
Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the hill 
before the Lord ; and they fell all seven together, 
and were put to death in the days of harvest, in 
the first days, in the beginning of barley-harvest. 
And Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, took sack- 
cloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from 
the beginning of harvest until water dropped 
upon them out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the 
air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by 
night. — 2 Samuel, xxi, 9, 10. 

Hear what the desolate Rizpah said, 

As on Gibeon's rocks she watched the dead. 

The sons of Michal before her lay, 

And her own fair children, dearer than they ; 

By a death of shame they all had died, 

And were stretched on the bare rock, by her side ; 

And Rizpah, once the loveliest of all 

That bloomed and smiled in the court of Saul, 

All wasted with watching and famine now, 

And scorched by the sun her haggard brow, 




RIZPAH PROTECTING THE BODIES OF HER SONS. 



rizpah. 467 

Sat, mournfully guarding their corpses there, 
And murmured a strange and solemn air ; 
The low, heart-broken, and waiting strain 
Of a mother that mourns her children slain. 

" I have made the crags my home, and spread 
On their desert backs my sackcloth bed ; 
I have eaten the bitter herb of the rocks, 
And drunk the midnight dew in my locks ; 
I have wept till I could not weep, and the pain 
Of my burning eyeballs went to my brain. 
Seven blackened corpses before me lie, 
In the blaze of the sun and the winds of the sky. 
I have watched them through the burning day, 
And driven the vulture and raven away ; 
And the cormorant wheeled in circles 'round, 
Yet feared to 'light on the guarded ground. 
And when the shadows of twilight came, 
I have seen the hyena's eyes of flame, 
And heard at my side his stealthy tread, 
But aye, at my shout, the savage fled ;. 
And I threw the lighted brand, to fright 
The jackal and wolf, that yelled in the night. 

' Ye were foully murdered, my hapless sons, 
By the hands of wicked and cruel ones ; 
Ye fell, in your fresh and blooming prime, 
All innocent, for your father's crime. 
He sinned — but he paid the price of his guilt 
When his blood by a nameless hand was spilt ; 
When he strove with the heathen host, in vain, 
And fell, with the flower of his people slain, 
And the sceptre his children's hands should sway 
From his injured lineage passed away. 

'But I hoped that my cottage roof would be 
A safe retreat for my sons and me ; 
And while they ripened to manhood fast, 
They would wean my thoughts from the woes of the past; 
And my bosom swelled with a mother's pride, 
As they stood in their beauty and strength by my side, 
Tall, like their sire, with the princely grace 
Of his stately form, and the bloom of his face. 



468 



FIDELITY TO HOME AND KINDRED. 



' O what an hour for a mother's heart, 
When the pitiless ruffians tore us apart ! 
When I clasped their knees, and wept and prayed, 
And struggled and shrieked to heaven for aid, 
And clung to my sons with desperate strength, 
Till the murderers loosed my hold at length, 
And bore me breathless and faint aside, 
In their iron arms, while my children died. 
They died — and the mother that gave them birth 
Is forbid to cover their bones with earth. 

' The barley-harvest was nodding white 
When my children died on the rocky height, 
And the reapers were singing on hill and plain 
When I came to my task of sorrow and pain. 
But now the season of rain is nigh, 
The sun is dim in the thickening sky, 
And the clouds in sullen darkness rest 
Where he hides his light at the doors of the west. 
I hear the howl of the wind that brings 
The long, drear storm on its heavy wings ; 
But the howling wind and the driving rain 
Will beat on my houseless head in vain : 
I shall stay, from my murdered sons to scare 
The beasts of the desert and fowls of air." 



VETURIA AND VOLUMNIA. 




AIUS Marcius Coriolanus, exiled from Rome in 
the year B. C. 488 by the seditious Tribunes and 
by his own indomitable pride, so far forgot all 
patriotic feelings as to engage the Volscians to 
make war against his country. The Volscians, 
proud of the assistance of such a distinguished 
hero, made him their general : he took the field, 
with vengeance in his heart. After a great 

number of victories, he marched straight to Rome, for the 

purpose of laying siege to it. 

So bold a design threw the patricians and the people equally 

into a state of the greatest alarm. Hatred gave way to fear; 



VETURIA AND VOLUMNIA. 469 

duputies were sent to Coriolanus, who received them with all 
the haughtiness of an enemy determined upon making his will 
the law. The Roman generals, instead of boldly meeting him 
in the field, exhorted him to grant them peace ; they conjured 
him to have pity on his country, and forget the injuries offered 
him by the populace, who were already sufficiently punished 
by the evils he had inflicted on them But they brought back 
nothing but the stern reply, " that they must restore to the 
Volscians all they had taken from them, and grant them the 
right of citizenship." Other deputies were dismissed in the 
same manner. The courage of these Romans, so proud and 
so intrepid, appeared to have passed with Coriolanus over to 
the side of the Volscians. Obedience to the laws was at an 
end ; military discipline was neglected ; they took counsel of 
nothing but their fear. At length, after many tumultuous 
deliberations, the ministers of religion were sent to endeavor to 
bend the will of the angry compatriot. Priests clothed in their 
sacred habiliments advanced with mournful steps to the camp 
of the Volscians, and the most venerable among them implored 
Coriolanus to give peace to his country, and, in the name of the 
gods, to have compassion on the Romans, his fellow citizens 
and brothers ; but they found him equally stern and inflexible. 
When the people saw the holy priests return without success, 
they indeed supposed the republic lost. They filled the 
temples, they embraced the altars of the gods, and gathered in 
clusters about the city uttering cries and lamentations ! Rome 
presented a picture of profound grief and debasement. Veturia, 
the mother of Coriolanus, and Volumnia, his wife, saved their 
unhappy country. They presented themselves before him, and 
conjured him, by all he held most sacred, to spare a city which 
had given him birth — which still contained his mother, his 
wife, and his children. His mother was a woman of great 
spirit — a Roman, almost a Spartan mother ; she had, from his 
boyhood, stimulated him to the performance of noble and 
heroic deeds; she might be called the parent of his glory, 
as well as of his vigorous person. Coriolanus loved his 



470 



FIDELITY TO HOME AND KINDRED. 



mother tenderly; almost idolized her, and could not resist 
her tears. He raised the siege, and delivered Rome from 
the greatest alarm it had ever experienced. — Great Sieges 
of History. 



PENELOPE, THE FAITHFUL WIFE. 




ENELOPE was born, 1214 B. C, and is one of 
the most interesting of the semi-historical 
heroines of antiquity. She was the daughter 
of Icarius and Polycaste, and a cousin of Helen, 
daughter of Tyndarus, King of Sparta. She 
married Ulysses, son of Laertes, King of 
Ithaca. The aged King resigned his crown 
to his son and retired to a life of rural solitude. 
Ulysses and Penelope lived for a time happily in their island 
kingdom, reigning in peace over their subjects, and rearing 
their son Telemachus. 

In the meantime Helen had married Menelaus, who, upon 
the death of Tyndarus, succeeded to the throne of Sparta. 
Paris, the son of Priam, King of Troy, now paid his mem- 
orable visit to Sparta, requiting the hospitality of his host by 
abducting his wife. Ulysses was summoned by Menelaus and 
his brother Agamemnon, to join the forces collecting for the 
chastisement of Paris and the destruction of Troy. Though 
loath to leave his beloved Penelope, he accompanied the 
Greeks to Ilium, and remained during the siege of Troy, which 
lasted for ten years. Upon the fall of the city he was involved 
in disasters, and for ten years more wandered from country to 
country, exposed to constant peril and unable to regain his 
home. It is the prudence, dignity and fidelity of Penelope, 
during those twenty years of separation, that have made her 
the heroine of poets, the envy of husbands, the dream and the 
toast of bachelors. 



PENELOPE, THE FAITHFUL WIFE. 471 

During the latter years of the absence of Ulysses, his palace 
at Ithaca was thronged with princes and peers, importunate 
and quarrelsome suitors for the hand of the Queen, who, they 
maintained, had long since been made a widow, by battle or 
shipwreck. 

Her friends and family urged her to abandon the idea of her 
husband's return, and to choose from the rival aspirants a father 
for Telemachus and a sovereign for Ithaca. She exerted all 
her ingenuity, and put in practice every artifice which she 
could invent, to defer the period of her final decision. In the 
seventeenth year of her solitude, she imagined the device 
which is so indissolubly connected with her name, engaging 
to make a choice when she should have completed a web which 
she was then weaving as a funeral ornament of Laertes, Ulysses' 
father, who was now rapidly sinking to the grave. The suitors 
gladly accepted a proposal which seemed to promise a speedy 
termination. But Penelope, assiduously unraveling at night 
what she had woven during the day, protracted for three years 
more the fatal moment. At the beginning of the fourth, a 
female attendant disclosed the pious treachery. These in- 
cidents are related by Homer, in a speech placed in the mouth 
of Antinous, the most turbulent of the suitors. Telemachus 
had reproached them with riotous conduct, alleging that their 
prodigality had well-nigh drained the Royal coffers. Antinous 
thus replied : — 

" O insolence of youth ! whose tongue affords 
Such railing eloquence and war of words ; 
Studious thy country's worthies to defame, 
Thy erring voice proclaims thy mother's shame ! 
Elusive of the bridal day, she gives 
Fond hope to all, and all with hope deceives ! 
Did not the sun, through heaven's wide azure roll'd, 
For three long years the royal fraud behold, 
While she laborious, in delusion spread 
The spacious loom and mixed the various thread ? 
When, as to life the wondrous figures rise, 
Thus spoke the inventive queen, with artful sighs : — 



472 . FIDELITY TO HOME AND KINDRED. 

"Though cold in death, Ulysses breathes no more, 
Cease yet awhile to urge the bridal hour ; 
Cease till to great Laertes I bequeath 
A task of grief, his ornaments of death, 
Lest when the fates his royal ashes claim, 
The Grecian matrons taint my spotless fame ; 
When he whom, living, mighty realms obeyed, 
Shall want in death a shroud to grace his shade ! 
Thus she : at once the generous train complies, 
Nor fraud mistrusts in Virtue's fair disguise. 
The work she plied, but studious of delay, 
By night reversed the labors of the day. 
While thrice the sun his annual journey made, 
The conscious lamp the midnight fraud surveyed : 
Unheard, unseen, three years her arts prevail, 
The fourth, her maid unfolds the amazing tale : 
We saw, as, unperceived, we took our stand, 
The backward labors of her faithless hand ; 
Then urged, she perfects her illustrious toils, 
A wondrous monument of female wiles !" 



In " Ovid's Epistle of the Heroines," is a letter of Penelope 
to Ulysses, in which, ignorant of the causes of his delay, she 
chides him for his prolonged absence, and with persuasive 
eloquence entreats him to return : — 

" Ulysses, thy Penelope sends this to thee, thus delaying. 
But write me nothing in answer ; do thou come thyself. Troy, 
so hateful to the Grecian fair, doubtless lies prostrate ; hardly 
was Priam and the whole of Troy of such great importance. 
Oh ! how I wish that, at the time he was making for Lace- 
daemon with his fleet, the adulterer had been overwhelmed in 
the raging waves! Then I had not lain cold in a deserted bed, 
nor, forlorn, should I have complained that the days pass 
slowly on. The hanging web would not have wearied my 
widowed hands, as I seek to beguile the lingering night. 

" When have I not been dreading dangers more grievous 
than the reality ? Love is a thing replete with anxious fears. 
Against thee did I fancy that the furious Trojans were rushing 
on ; at the name of Hector, I was always pale. But the 



PENELOPE, THE FAITHFUL WIFE. 473 

righteous god has a regard for my chaste passion ; Troy has 
been reduced to ashes and my husband survives. The Argive 
chieftains have returned ; the altars are smoking ; the spoils 
of the barbarians are offered to the gods of our country. The 
damsels newly married are presenting the gifts of gratitude for 
the safe return of their husbands ; the latter are celebrating the 
destinies of Troy overcome by their own. 

" But what avails me Ilion hurled down by thy arms, and 
that level ground which once was walls, if I remain just as I 
remained while Troy was flourishing, and if thou, my husband, 
art afar from me, to be lamented by me eternally ? 

" Now 'tis a field of corn where once Troy stood ; and the 
ground destined to be plied with the sickle is rich, fattened by 
Phrygian blood. Victorious, thou are absent, and it is not 
granted me to know what is the cause of thy delaying, or in 
what corner of the world, in thy cruelty, thou art concealed. 

"Whoever steers his stranger bark to these shores, departs 
after having been asked by me many a question about thee ; 
and to him is entrusted the paper inscribed with my fingers for 
him to deliver to thee, if he should only see thee anywhere. 

" More to my advantage were the walls of Troy standing 
even now. I should then know where thou art fighting, and 
warfare alone I should dread, and with those of many others 
would my complaints be joined. What to fear I know not; 
still bewildered I dread everything ; and a wide field lies open 
for my apprehensions. Whatever dangers the sea presents, 
whatever the land, these I suspect to be the causes of a delay 
so prolonged. While in my folly I am imagining these things, 
such is the inconstancy of you men, that thou mayest be capti- 
vated by some foreign beauty. Perhaps, too, thou mayest be 
telling how homely thy wife is, who minds only the spindle 
and the distaff. 

" May I prove mistaken, and may this charge vanish into 
unsubstantial air; and mayest thou not, if free to return, 
still desire to be absent! My father, Icarius, urges me to 
leave a widowed bed, and is always chiding thy protracted 



474 



FIDELITY TO HOME AND KINDRED. 



delay. Let him chide on; thine I am; thy Penelope must I 
be called ; the wife of Ulysses will I ever be. Suitors from 
Dulychium and Samos, and the lofty Zycanthus, a wanton 
crew, are besetting me ; and in thy palace do they rule, with 
no one to hinder them ; thy wealth they are dissipating; I have 
no strength to drive the enemy from thy abode; come 
speedily then, the refuge and sanctuary of thy family. 

" Thou hast, and long mayest thou have, a son, who in his 
tender years ought to have been trained to the virtues of his 
father. Think of Laertes ; that thou mayest close his eyes he 
still drags on the closing hours of his existence. I, no doubt, 
who was but a girl when thou didst depart, shall seem to 
have become an old woman, though thou should'st return at 
once." 

At the end of the twentieth year, Ulysses returned and Pene- 
lope fell upon his neck and wept. — From "The Life of Man I' etc. 



A GOOD SON. 




HILE the French troops were encamped at 
Boulogne public attention was excited by 
the daring attempt at escape made by an 
English sailor. This person, having es- 
caped from the depot, and having gained 
the seashore, where the woods served for 
concealing him, constructed, with no other 
instrument than a knife, a boat, entirely of 
When the weather was fair, he mounted a 
tree and looked out for the English flag. And having, at last, 
observed a British cruiser, he ran to the shore with the boat 
on his back, and was about to trust himself in his frail vessel 
to the waves, when he was pursued, arrested and loaded with 
chains. Everybody in the army was anxious to see the boat, 
and Napoleon having, at length, heard of the affair, sent for the 
sailor and interrogated him. " You must," said Napoleon, 



the bark of trees. 



a good son. 475 

" have had a great desire to see your country again, since you 
could resolve to trust yourself on the open sea in so frail a 
bark; I suppose you have left a sweetheart there." "No," 
said the sailor, " but a poor and infirm mother, whom I was 
anxious to see." " And you shall see her," said Napoleon, 
giving, at the same time, orders to set him at liberty, and to 
bestow upon him a considerable sum of money, observing that 
" she must be a good mother who had so good a son." 

This event has been touchingly portrayed by the poet 
Campbell, in the following lines : — 

I love contemplating, apart 

From all his homicidal glory, 
The traits that soften to our heart 

Napoleon's story ! 

'Twas when his banners at Boulogne 

Armed on our island every freeman, 
His navy chanced to capture one 

Poor British seaman. 

They suffered him — I know not how — 

Imprisoned on the shore to roam; 
And aye was bent his longing brow 

On England's home. 

His eye, methinks, pursued the flight 

Of birds to Britain half way over 
With envy, they could reach the white, 

Dear cliffs of Dover. 

A stormy midnight watch, he thought, 

Than this sojourn would have been dearer, 

If but the storm his vessel brought 
To England nearer. 

At last, when care had banished sleep, 
He saw, one morning, dreaming, doating, 

An empty hogshead from the deep 
Come shoreward floating. 

He hid it in a cave, and wrought 

The livelong day laborious, lurking, 
Until he launched a tiny boat, 

By mighty working. 



476 FIDELITY TO HOME AND KINDRED. 

Heaven help us ! 'twas a thing beyond 
Description wretched ; such a wherry 

Perhaps ne'er ventured on a pond 
Or crossed a ferry. 

For ploughing in a salt sea-field, 

It would have made the boldest shudder; 

Untarred, uncompassed and unkeeled, 
No sail nor rudder. 

From neighboring woods he interlaced 
His sorry skiff with wattled willows ; 

And thus equipped he would have passed 
The foaming billows. 

But Frenchmen caught him on the beach, 

His little Argo sorely jeering ; 
Till tidings of him chanced to reach 

Napoleon's hearing. 

With folded arms Napoleon stood, 

Serene alike in peace and danger, 
And in his wonted attitude, 

Addressed the stranger : — 

' Rash man, that would'st yon channel pass 
On twigs and staves so rudely fashioned, 
Thy heart by some sweet British lass 
Must be impassioned." 

" I have no sweetheart," said the lad ; 
" But absent long from one another, 
Great was the longing that I had 
To see my mother.' 

"And so thou shalt," Napoleon said; 
" Ye've both my favor fairly won ; J 
A noble mother must have bred 
So brave a son." 

He gave the tar a piece of gold, 
And with a flag of truce commanded j 

He should be shipped to England old, 
And safely landed. 

Our sailor oft could scantly shift 
To find a dinner, plain and hearty ; 

But never changed the coin and gift 
Of Bonaparte. Thomas Campbell. 



THE ESCAPE OF GROTIUS. 477 

THE ESCAPE OF GROTIUS. 

E. PAXTON HOOD, D. D. 




FTER the learned Grotius had been confined 
about a year in the castle of Louvenstein, Hol- 
land, to which imprisonment he was sentenced 
for life, his wife contrived and executed the 
means of his deliverance. Perceiving that the 
guards were not so strict in examining the chest 
which was made use of to carry books and linen 
to and from the prison, she persuaded her hus- 
band to get into it and remain there as long as it would require 
to go from Louvenstein to Gorcum. Finding that he could 
endure the confinement when holes were made in the chest, to 
breathe through, Madam Grotius determined to seize the first 
opportunity of effecting her design. Accordingly, when the 
governor went to Heusden to raise recruits, she waited upon 
his lady, and told her she was anxious to send away her hus- 
band's books ; too great an application to which, she said, 
had already injured his health. Having thus prepared the 
commandant's wife, and at the same time spread abroad a 
general report that her husband was ill, on March 21st, 1621, 
she, with the help of her servant maid, shut him up in the chest. 
Two soldiers carried it, and one of them, finding it heavier than 
usual, observed, " There must be an Arminian in it," to which 
Madam Grotius coolly replied, "There are some Arminian 
books in it." The chest was then brought down a ladder with 
great difficulty, and the extraordinary care which was taken in 
conveying it made one of the soldiers suspicious; he demanded 
the key, and upon its being refused he went to the command- 
ant's lady, who reprimanded him, saying there were only books 
in the chest, and that they might carry it to the boat. While 
they were carrying it along, a soldier's wife said there was 
more than one instance of prisoners making their escape in 



478 



FIDELITY TO HOME AND KINDRED. 



boxes. However, the chest was placed in the boat, and the 
maid accompanied it to Gorcum, where it was taken to the 
house of M. Dazelaer, a friend of Grotius ; and when everybody 
was gone the servant unlocked the chest, and let her master 
out, who had suffered but little inconvenience, though the 
length was not above three and a half feet. 

Being thus free, he dressed himself like a mason, with a 
trowel and rule in his hand, and going out at Dazelaer's back 
door, went to Valvic in Brabant, and from thence to Antwerp. 
In the meanwhile it was believed at Louvenstein that he was 
ill ; and to give him time to get clear off, his wife reported that 
his disorder was dangerous ; but as soon as she learned from 
her maid that he was safe she acknowledged the fact. The 
commandant in a great rage put her under a rigid confinement; 
but on presenting a petition to the States General, they were 
ashamed of acting so severely to a woman who had conducted 
herself with so much magnanimity, and ordered her to be set 
at liberty. 

"I AM JOSEPH ; DOTH MY FATHER YET LIVE ?" 



REV. JAMES BLAIR, D. D. 




O human character exhibited in the records 
of Scripture is more remarkable and in- 
structive than that of the patriarch Joseph. 
He is one whom we behold tried in all the 
vicissitudes of fortune; from the condition 
of a slave, rising to be ruler of the land of 
Egypt; and in every station acquiring, by 
his virtue and wisdom, favor with God and 
man. When overseer of Potiphar's house, his fidelity was 
proved by strong temptations, which he honorably resisted. 

When thrown into prison by the artifices of a false woman, 
his integrity and prudence soon rendered him conspicuous, 



"I AM JOSEPH; DOTH MY FATHER YET LIVE?" 479 

even in that dark mansion. When called into the presence of 
Pharaoh, the wise and extensive plan which he formed for 
saving the kingdom from the miseries of impending famine 
justly raised him to a high station, wherein his abilities were 
eminently displayed in the public service. But in his whole 
history there is no circumstance so striking and interesting as 
his behavior to his brethren who had sold him into slavery. 
The moment in which he made himself known to them was 
the most critical one in his life, and the most decisive of his 
character. It is such as rarely occurs in the course of human 
events, and is calculated to draw the highest attention of all 
who are endowed with any degree of sensibility of heart. 

From the whole tenor of the narrative, it appears that, 
though Joseph, upon the arrival of his brethren in Egypt, 
made himself strange to them, yet, from the beginning, he in- 
tended to discover himself, and studied so to conduct the dis- 
covery as might render the surprise of joy complete. For this 
end, by affected severity, he took measures for bringing down 
into Egypt all his father's children. 

They were now arrived there, and Benjamin among the rest, 
who was his younger brother by the same mother, and was 
particularly beloved by Joseph. Him he threatened to detain, 
and seemed willing to allow the rest to depart. This incident 
renewed their distress. They all knew their father's extreme 
anxiety about the safety of Benjamin, and with what difficulty 
he had yielded to his undertaking this journey. Should he be 
prevented from returning, they dreaded that grief would over- 
power the old man's spirits, and prove fatal to his life. Judah, 
therefore, who had particularly urged the necessity of Ben- 
jamin's accompanying his brothers, and had solemnly pledged 
himself to their father for his safe return, craved, upon this 
occasion, an audience of the Governor, and gave him a full 
account of the circumstances of Jacob's family. 

Nothing can be more interesting and pathetic than the dis- 
course of Judah. Little knowing to whom he spoke, he paints, 
in all the colors of simple and natural eloquence, the distressed 
situation of the aged patriarch, hastening to the close of life, 



480 FIDELITY TO HOME AND KINDRED. 

long afflicted for the loss of a favorite son, whom he had sup- 
posed to have been torn in pieces by a beast of prey, laboring 
now under anxious concern about his youngest son, the child 
of his old age, who alone was left alive of his mother, and 
whom nothing but the calamities of severe famine could have 
moved a tender father to send from home, and expose to the 
dangers of a foreign land. 

" If we bring him not back with us, we shall bring down the 
gray hairs of thy servant, our father, with sorrow to the grave; 
I pray thee, therefore, let thy servant abide instead of the young 
man, a bondman to our lord. For how shall I go up to my 
father, and Benjamin not with me, lest I see the evil that shall 
come on my father ? " 

Upon this relation, Joseph could no longer restrain himself. 
The tender ideas of his father, and his father's house, of his 
ancient home, his country, and his kindred, of the distress of 
his family, and his own exaltation, all rushed too strongly upon 
his mind to bear any further concealment. He cried, " Cause 
every man to go out from me; " and he wept aloud. 

The tears which he shed were not tears of grief. They were 
the burst of affection. They were the effusion of a heart over- 
flowing with all the tender sensibilities of nature. Formerly 
he had been moved in the same manner when he first saw his 
brethren before him. " His bowels yearned upon them ; he 
sought for a place where to weep. He went to his chamber, 
and there washed his face and returned to them." At that 
period, his generous plans were not completed. But now, 
when there was no further occasion for constraining himself, 
he gave free vent to the strong emotions of his heart. The first 
minister to the king of Egypt was not ashamed to show that 
he felt as a man and a brother. " He wept aloud ; and the 
Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard him." 

The first words which his swelling heart allowed him to 
pronounce are the most suitable to such an affecting situation 
that were ever uttered : — " I am Joseph ; doth my father yet 
live ? " What could he, what ought he, in that impassioned 
moment to have said more ! This is the voice of nature her- 



BRA VER Y OF GEN. SCHUYLER 'S DA UGHTER. 481 

self speaking her own language, and it penetrates the heart; 
no pomp of expression, no parade of kindness, but strong 
affection hastening to utter what it strongly felt. " His brethren 
could not answer him, for they were troubled in his presence." 
Their silence is as expressive of those emotions of repentance 
and shame, which on this amazing discovery filled their breasts 
and stopped their utterance, as the few words which Joseph 
speaks are expressive of the generous agitations which strug- 
gled for vent in him. 

No painter could seize a more striking moment for displaying 
the characteristic features of the human heart than what is 
here presented. Never was there a situation of more tender 
and virtuous joy, on the one hand, nor, on the other, of more 
overwhelming confusion and conscious guilt. In the simple 
narration of the sacred historian, it is set before us with greater 
energy and higher effect than if it had been wrought up with 
all the coloring of the most admired modern eloquence. 



BRAVERY OF GENERAL SCHUYLER'S LITTLE 
DAUGHTER. 



BENSON J. LOSSING. 




URING the summer of 178 1, General Schuy- 
ler was residing in the suburbs of Albany, 
having left the army and engaged in the 
civil service of his country. Notwithstand- 
ing his comparatively obscure position, his 
aid and counsel were constantly sought, in 
both civil and military transactions, and he 
was considered, by the enemy, one of the 
prominent obstacles in the way of their success. He was then 
charged by Washington with the duty of intercepting all com- 
munications between Generals Haldimand, in Canada, and 
Clinton, in New York. For some time the Tories in the 
31 



482 FIDELITY TO HOME AND KINDRED. 

neighborhood of Albany had been employed in capturing 
prominent citizens and carrying them off to Canada for the 
purpose of exchange. 

Such an attempt was made upon Colonel Gansevoort, and 
now a bold project was conceived to carry off General 
Schuyler. 

John Watermeyer, a bold partisan and colleague of the noto- 
rious Joe Bettys, was employed for the purpose. Accom- 
panied by a gang of Tories, Canadians and Indians, he repaired 
to the neighborhood of Albany, but, uncertain how well General 
Schuyler might be guarded, he lurked among the pine shrub- 
bery in the vicinity eight or ten days. He seized a Dutch 
laborer, and learned from him the exact position of affairs at 
Schuyler's house, after which he extorted an oath of secrecy 
from the man, and let him go. The Dutchman seems to have 
made a mental reservation, for he immediately gave informa- 
tion of the fact to General Schuyler. A loyalist who was the 
General's personal friend, and cognizant of Watermeyer's 
designs, also warned him. In consequence of the recent 
abduction, the General kept a guard of six men constantly on 
duty, three by day and three by night, and after these warn- 
ings they and his family were constantly on the alert. 

At the close of a sultry day in August, the General and his 
family were sitting in the front hall. The servants were dis- 
persed about the premises. The three guards relieved for the 
night were asleep in the basement room, and the three on 
duty, oppressed by the heat, were lying upon the cool grass in 
the garden. A servant announced to the General that a 
stranger desired to speak to him at the back gate. The 
stranger's errand was at once comprehended. The doors of 
the house were at once shut and close barred. The family 
were hastily collected in an upper room, and the General ran 
to his bed-chamber for his arms. From the window he saw 
the house surrounded by armed men. For the purpose of 
arousing the sentinels upon the grass, and perchance to alarm 
the town, he fired a pistol from the window. The assailants 



BRA VER Y OF GEN. SCHUYLER 'S DA UGHTER. 483 

burst open the doors, and at that moment Mrs. Schuyler per- 
ceived that in the confusion and alarm of the retreat from the 
hall, her infant child, a few months old, had been left in the 
cradle in the nursery below. 

Parental love subdued all fear, and she was flying to the 
rescue of her child, when the General interposed and prevented 
her. 

But her third daughter, Margaret (afterward the wife of the 
venerated General Van Rensselaer, of Albany), instantly rushed 
down the two flights of stairs, snatched the still sleeping infant 
from the cradle, and bore it aloft safely. 

One of the miscreants hurled a sharp tomahawk at her as 
she left the room, but it effected no other harm than a slight 
injury to her dress, within a few inches of the infant's head. 

As she ascended a private staircase, she met Watermeyer, 
who, supposing her to be a servant, exclaimed, "Wench, wench, 
where is your master ? " 

With great presence of mind, she replied, " Gone to alarm 
the town." 

The Tory followers were then in the dining-room, plundering 
it of the plate and other valuables, and he called them together 
for consultation. 

At that moment the General threw up a window, and as if 
speaking to numbers, called out, in a loud voice, " Come on, 
my brave fellows, surround the house and secure the villains, 
who are plundering." 

The assailants made a precipitate retreat, carrying with them 
the three guards that were in the house, and a large quantity 
of silver plate. They made their way to Ballstown, by day- 
break, where they took General Gordon a prisoner, from his 
bed, and with their booty returned to Canada. The bursting 
open the doors of General Schuyler's house aroused the sleep- 
ing guards in the cellar, who rushed up the back hall, where 
they had left their arms, but they were gone. Mrs. Church, 
another daughter of General Schuyler, who was there at the 
time, without the slightest suspicion that they might be wanted, 



484 



FIDELITY TO HOME AND KINDRED. 



caused the arms to be removed a short time before the attack, 
on account of apprehended injury to her little son, whom she 
found playing with them. 

The guards had no other weapons but their brawny fists, and 
these they used manfully, until overpowered. 

They were taken to Canada, and when they were exchanged, 
the General gave them each a farm, in Saratoga county. Their 
names were, John Tubbs, John Corlies and John Ward. 



DAVID'S 



LAMENT FOR 

2 Samuel, xviii, 33. 



ABSALOM. 



IIJUfcHE waters slept. Night's silvery veil hung low 
On Jordan's bosom, and the eddies curl'd 
Their glassy rings beneath it, like the still, 
Unbroken beating of the sleeper's pulse. 
The reeds bent down the stream ; the willow-leaves, 
With a soft cheek upon the running tide, 
Forgot the lifting winds ; and the long stems, 
Whose flowers the water, like a gentle nurse, 
Bears on its boson, quietly gave way, 
And lean'd, in graceful attitudes, to rest. 
How strikingly the course of nature tells, 
By its light heed of human suffering, 
That it was fashion' d for a happier world ! 

King David's limbs were weary. He had fled 
From far Jerusalem ; and now he stood, 
With his faint people, for a little rest, 
Upon the shore of Jordan. The light wind 
Of morn was stirring, and he bared his brow 
To its refreshing breath ; for he had worn 
The mourner's covering, and he had not felt 
That he could see his people until now. 
They gather'd round him on the fresh green bank, 
And spoke their kindly words ; and, as the sun 
Rose up in heaven, he knelt among them there, 
And bow'd his head upon his hands to pray. 

Oh ! when the heart is full, when bitter thoughts 
Come crowding quickly up for utterance, 



DA FID'S LAMENT FOR ABSAL OM. 485 

And the poor common words of courtesy- 
Are such a very mockery, how much 
The bursting heart may pour itself in prayer ! 
He pray'd for Israel ; and his voice went up 
Strongly and fervently. He pray'd for those 
Whose love had been his shield : and his deep tones 
Grew tremulous. But, oh ! for Absalom, 
For his estranged, misguided Absalom — 
The proud, bright being, who had burst away, 
In all his princely beauty, to defy 
The heart that cherished him — for him he poured, 
In agony that would not be controlled, 
Strong supplication, and forgave him there, 
Before his God, for his deep sinfulness. 

The pall was settled. He who slept beneath 
Was straitened for the grave ; and as the folds 
Sunk to the still proportions, they betrayed 
The matchless symmetry of Absalom. 
His hair was yet unshorn, and silken curls 
Were floating round the tassels, as they swayed 
To the admitted air, as glossy now 
As when, in hours of gentle dalliance, bathing 
The snowy fingers of Judea's girls. 

His helm was at his feet; his banner, soiled 
With trailing through Jerusalem, was laid, 
Reversed, beside him ; and the jeweled hilt, 
Whose diamonds lit the passage of his blade, 
Rested, like mockery, on his covered brow. 

The soldiers of the king trod to and fro, 

Clad in the garb of battle ; and their chief, 

The mighty Joab, stood beside the bier, 

And gazed upon the dark pall steadfastly, 

As if he feared the slumberer might stir. 

A slow step startled him. He grasped his blade 

As if a trumpet rang ; but the bent form 

Of David entered, and he gave command, 

In a low tone, to his few followers, 

And left him with his dead. 

The king stood still 
Till the last echo died ; then, throwing off 
The sackcloth from his brow, and laying back 



486 FIDELITY TO HOME AND KINDRED. 

The pall from the still features of his child. 
He bowed his head upon him, and broke forth 
In the resistless eloquence of woe: — 

"Alas, my noble boy, that thou should'st die ! 

Thou, who wert made so beautifully fair ! 

That death should settle in thy glorious eye, 

And leave his stillness in this clustering hair ! 
How could he mark thee for the silent tomb, 
My proud boy, Absalom ? 

" Cold is thy brow, my son ; and I am chill, 
As to my bosom I have tried to press thee. 
How was I wont to feel my pulses thrill, 

Like a rich harp-string, yearning to caress thee, 
And hear thy sweet ' my father ' from these dumb 
And cold lips, Absalom ! 

"The grave hath won thee. I shall hear the gush 
Of music and the voices of the young, 
And life will pass me in the mantling blush, 

And the dark tresses to the soft winds flung ; 
But thou no more, with thy sweet voice, shalt come 
To meet me, Absalom ! 

"And, oh ! when I am stricken, and my heart, 
Like a bruised reed, is waiting to be broken, 
How will its love for thee, as I depart, 

Yearn for thine ear to drink its last deep token ! 
It were so sweet, amid death's gathering gloom, 
To see thee, Absalom ! # 

"And now, farewell ! 'Tis hard to give thee up, 

With death so like a gentle slumber on thee ; 

And thy dark sin ! — Oh, I could drink the cup, 

If from this woe its, bitterness had won thee ! 

May God have called thee, like a wanderer, home, 

My erring Absalom ! " 

He covered up his face, and bowed himself 

A moment on his child; then, giving him 

A look of melting tenderness, he clasped 

His hands convulsively, as if in prayer ; 

And, as if strength were given him of God, 

He rose up calmly, and composed the pall 

Firmly and decently, and left him there, 

As if his rest had been a breathing sleep. N. P. Willis. 



" The highest compact we can make with our fellow, is — Let there be truth 
between us two forevermore. * * * It is sublime to feel and say of another, 
I need never meet or speak, or write to him ; we need not reinforce ourselves, 
or send tokens of remembrance ; I rely on him as on myself; if he did thus 
or thus, I know it was right," 

— Ralph Waldo Emerson. 



PART X. 



TRUE FRIENDSHIP. 



DAMON AND PYTHIAS. 



ARCHBISHOP FENELON. 




AMON and Pythias were two celebrated Sy- 
racusans, whose names are always joined as 
the types of true and noble friendship. They 
were both disciples of Pythagoras. Pythias 
was condemned to death by Dionysius the 
elder, Tyrant of Syracuse (who nourished 
during the early part of the fourth century, 
B. C), but requested to be temporarily re- 
leased, in order to arrange his affairs, promising to procure a 
friend to take his place and suffer his punishment, if he should 
not return. Pythias was allowed to depart, and Damon gave 
himself up as his substitute. Before the time for the execution 
Pythias returned, and Dionysius set both of them free. In the 
following dialogue, the events that brought about their pardon 
are vividly described. 

Dionysius. Amazing! What do I see? It is Pythias, just 
arrived — it is, indeed, Pythias. I did not think it 
489 



490 TRUE FRIENDSHIP. 

possible. He is come to die and to redeem his 
friend ! 

Pythias. Yes, it is Pythias. I left the place of my confine- 
ment with no other views than to pay to heaven the 
vows I had made ; to settle my family concerns, ac- 
cording to the rules of justice; and to bid adieu to 
my children, that I might die tranquil and satisfied. 

Dionysins. But why dost thou return ? Hast thou no fear of 
death ? Is it not the character of a madman to seek 
it thus voluntarily ? 

Pythias. I return to suffer, though I have not deserved death. 
Every principle of honor and goodness forbids me 
to allow my friend to die for me. 

Dionysius. Dost thou, then, love him better than thyself ? 

Pythias. No; I love him as myself. But I am persuaded 
that I ought to suffer death, rather than my friend, 
since it was Pythias whom thou hadst decreed to die. 
It were not just that Damon should suffer, to deliver 
me from the death which was designed, not for him, 
but for me only. 

Dionysius. But thou supposest that it is as unjust to inflict 
death upon thee, as upon thy friend. 

Pythias. Very true ; we are both perfectly innocent ; and it is 
equally unjust to make either of us suffer. 

Dionysius. Why dost thou then assert that it were injustice 
to put him to death, instead of thee ? 

Pythias. It is unjust, in the same degree, to inflict death either 
on Damon or on myself; but Pythias were highly 
culpable to let Damon suffer that death which the 
tyrant had prepared for Pythias only. 

Dionysius. Dost thou then return hither, on the day appointed, 
with no other view than to save the life of a friend 
by losing thy own? 

Pythias. I return, in regard to thee, to suffer an act of injus- 
tice which it is common for tyrants to inflict; and, 
with respect to Damon, to perform my duty, by 



DAMON AND PYTHIAS. ^\ 

rescuing him from the danger he incurred by his 
generosity to me. 

Dionysius. And now, Damon, let me address myself to thee. 
Didst thou not really fear that Pythias would never 
return; and that thou wouldst be put to death on his 
account? 

Damon. I was but too well assured, that Pythias would punc- 
tually return; and that he would be more solicitous 
to keep his promise than to preserve his life. Would 
to heaven, that his relations and friends had forcibly 
detained him! He would then have lived for the 
comfort and benefit of good men; and I should have 
the satisfaction of dying for him ! 

Dionysius. What! Does life displease thee? 

Damon. Yes; it displeases me when I see and feel the power 
of a tyrant. 

Dionysius. It is well ! Thou shalt see him no more. I will 
order thee to be put to death immediately. 

Pythias. Pardon the feelings of a man who sympathizes with 
his dying friend. But remember it was Pythias who 
was devoted by thee to destruction. I come to sub- 
mit to it, that I may redeem my friend. Do not 
refuse me this consolation in my last hour. 

Dionysius. I cannot endure men who despise death and set 
my power at defiance. 

Damon. Thou canst not, then, endure virtue. 

Dionysias. No; I cannot endure that proud, disdainful virtue 
which contemns life; which dreads no punishment; 
and which is insensible to the charms of riches and 
pleasure. 

Damon. Thou seest, however, that it is a virtue which is not 
insensible to the dictates of honor, justice and friend- 
ship. 
Dionysius. Guards, take Pythias to execution. We shall see 
whether Damon will continue to despise my au- 
thority. 



492 TRUE FRIENDSHIP. 

Damon. Pythias, by returning to submit himself to thy plea- 
sure, has merited his life, and deserved thy favor; 
but I have excited thy indignation, by resigning 
myself to thy power, in order to save him; be 
satisfied, then, with this sacrifice, and put me to 
death. 

Pythias. Hold, Dionysius! remember, it was Pythias alone 
who offended thee; Damon could not 

Dionysius. Alas ! what do I see and hear ! where am I ? How 
miserable ; and how worthy to be so ! I have hitherto 
known nothing of true virtue. I have spent my life 
in darkness and error. All my power and honors 
are insufficient to produce love. I cannot boast of 
having acquired a single friend, in the course of a 
reign of thirty years. And yet these two persons, in 
a private condition, love one another tenderly, unre- 
servedly confide in each other, are mutually happy, 
and ready to die for each other's preservation. 

Pythias. How couldst thou, who hast never loved any person, 
expect to have friends? If thou hadst loved and 
respected men, thou wouldst have secured their love 
and respect. Thou hast feared mankind; and they 
fear thee; they detest thee. 

Dionysius. Damon, Pythias, condescend to admit me as a 
third friend, in a connection so perfect. I give you 
your lives; and I will load you with riches. 

Damon. We have no desire to be enriched by thee ; and, in 
regard to thy friendship, we cannot accept or enjoy 
it, till thou become good and just. Without these 
qualities, thou canst be connected with none but 
trembling slaves and base flatterers. To be loved 
and esteemed by men of free and generous minds, 
thou must be virtuous, affectionate, disinterested, 
beneficent; and know how to live in a sort of 
equality with those who share and deserve thy 
friendship. 



POCAHONTAS. 
POCAHONTAS. 



493 



JARED SPARKS. 




HE residence of Powhatan was situated on 
the north side of York River, in Gloucester 
county, Virginia, about twenty-five miles 
below the fork of the river. It was at that 
time Powhatan's principal place of residence, 
though afterwards, not being pleased with 
its proximity to the English, he removed to 
Orapax. Upon Smith's arrival in the village, 
he was detained until the Indian Emperor and his court could 
make suitable preparations to receive the captain in proper 
state. In the meanwhile, more than two hundred of his " grim 
courtiers " came to gaze at him, as if he had been a monster. 

Powhatan, who was at this time about sixty years old, is de- 
scribed as having been, in outward appearance, " every inch a 
king." His figure was noble, his stature majestic, and his 
countenance full of the severity and haughtiness of a ruler, 
whose will was supreme, and whose nod was law. He received 
Captain Smith with imposing, though rude, ceremony. 

He was seated on a kind of throne, elevated above the floor 
of a large hut, in the midst of which was a fire. He was 
clothed with a robe of raccoon skins. Two young women, his 
daughters, sat, one on his right, the other on his left; and on 
each side of the hut there were two rows of men in front, and 
the same number of women behind. These all had their heads 
and shoulders painted red. Many had their hair ornamented 
with the white down of birds. Some had chains of white 
beads around their necks, and all had more or less of ornament. 
When Smith was brought home, they all set up a great 
shout. Soon after his entrance, a female of rank was directed 
to bring him water to wash his hands, and another brought 
him a bunch of feathers, instead of a towel, to dry them with. 



494 TRUE FRIENDSHIP. 

They then feasted him in the best manner they could, and held 
a long and solemn consultation to determine his fate. The 
decision was against him. 

Two large stones were brought in and placed before Pow- 
hatan, and Smith was dragged up to them, and his head was 
placed upon them, that his brains might be beaten out with 
clubs. The fatal weapon was already raised, and the stern 
executioners looked for the signal which should bid them de- 
scend upon the victim's defenceless head. But the protecting 
shield of Divine Providence was over him, and the arm of 
violence arrested. 

Pocahontas, the King's favorite daughter — at that time a 
child of twelve or thirteen years of age — finding that her 
piteous entreaties to save the life of Smith were unavailing, 
rushed forward, clasped his head in her arms, and laid her own 
upon it, determined either to save his life or share his fate. 
Her generous and heroic conduct touched her father's iron 
heart, and the life of the captive was spared, to be employed 
in making hatchets for himself, and bells and beads for his 
daughters. 

The account of this beautiful and most touching scene, 
familiar as it is to every one, can hardly be read with un- 
moistened eyes. The incident is so dramatic and startling, 
that it seems to preserve the freshness of novelty amidst a 
thousand repetitions. It could almost as reasonably be ex- 
pected that an angel should come down from heaven and 
rescue the captive, as that his deliverer should spring from the 
bosom of Powhatan's family. 

The universal sympathies of mankind, and the best feelings 
of the human heart, have redeemed this scene from the ob- 
scurity which, in the progress of time, gathers over all but the 
most important events. It has pointed a thousand morals and 
adorned a thousand tales. Immovable bosoms have throbbed 
and are yet to throb, with generous admiration for this daughter 
of a people whom we have been too ready to underrate. Did 
we know nothing of her but what is narrated of her in this 



POCAHONTAS. 495 

incident, she would deserve the eternal gratitude of the inhabit- 
ants of this country ; for the fate of the colony may be said 
to have hung upon the arms of Smith's executioners. He was 
its life and soul, and without the magic influence of his personal 
qualities, it would have abandoned in despair the project of 
permanently settling the country, and sailed to England by the 
first opportunity. 

The generosity of Powhatan was not content with merely 
sparing his prisoner's life. He detained him but two days 
longer. At the end of that time he conducted him to a large 
house in the woods, and there left him alone, upon a mat by 
the fire. In a short time, from behind another mat that divided 
the house, was made the most doleful noise he ever heard ; then 
Powhatan, with some two hundred more as black as himself, 
came in and told him they were now friends, and that he should 
return to Jamestown ; and that if he would send him two pieces 
of cannon and a grindstone, he would give him the country of 
Capahowsic, and esteem him as his own son. He was faithful 
to his word, and despatched him immediately, with twelve 
guides. That night they quartered in the woods ; and during 
the whole journey Captain Smith expected every moment to 
be put to death, notwithstanding Powhatan's fair words. But, 
as the narrative of his adventures has it, " Almighty God, by 
his divine providence, had mollified the hearts of those stern 
barbarians with compassion." 

Smith reached Jamestown in safety, after an absence of 
seven weeks, and treated his savage guides with great hospi- 
tality and kindness. He showed them two demi-culverins and 
a millstone, which they proposed to carry to Powhatan, but 
found them too heavy. He ordered the culverins to be loaded 
with stones and discharged among the boughs of a tree 
covered with icicles, in order to magnify to them the effect of 
these formidable engines. 

When they heard the report, and saw the ice and branches 
come rattling down, they were greatly terrified. A few trinkets 
restored their confidence, and they were dismissed with a variety 



496 



TRUE FRIENDSHIP. 



of presents for Powhatan and his family. The generous conduct 
of Powhatan, in restoring a prisoner who had given such fatal 
proofs of his courage and prowess, is worthy of the highest 
admiration. There is hardly anything in history that can 
afford a parallel to it. 

He was stimulated to take the prisoner's life, not only by 
revenge, a passion strongest in savage breasts, but by policy, 
and that regard to his own interest which Christian and 
civilized monarchs feel justified in observing. He seems to 
have acted from some religious feeling, regarding Smith either 
as a supernatural being, or as under the special protection of a 
higher power. How far this may have actuated him, or how 
far he may have been actuated by affection for his daughter, it 
is impossible to say; but, supposing both to have operated, we 
only elevate his conduct by elevating his motives. 



ALLUCIUS AND HIS BRIDE. 




(HE younger Scipio, charged with the prose- 
cution of the war in Spain, after the death of 
his father and his uncle, 216 B. C, evinced, 
from the early age of twenty-four, the wisdom 
and prudence of a consummate commander. 
Anxious to weaken Carthage, he undertook 
the siege of Carthagena, one of its most im- 
portant colonies. This strong city served 

the Carthaginians at once as magazine, arsenal and entrepot ; 

they kept within its walls the hostages which answered for the 

fidelity of Spain. 

Scipio made all his preparations during the Winter ; in the 

Spring he blockaded Carthagena with his fleet, at the same 

time that he invested it by land. On the day following, the 

armies, both by land and sea, commenced hostilities. 

Scipio ordered his soldiers to mount to the assault ; and 

they executed his orders with ardor and celerity. Mago, the 



A L LUCIUS AND HIS BRIDE. 497 

brother of Hannibal, who commanded in the place, had but a 
thousand soldiers, and thought himself lost. He armed the 
citizens, picked out two thousand of the best, and made a 
sortie. Victory was for a long time doubtful ; but the Cartha- 
ginians were driven back within their walls. This first defeat 
would have produced the most complete discouragement in 
Carthagena, if the Romans had not been forced, by the 
height of the walls, to abandon the escalade and sound a 
retreat. This untoward circumstance restored hopes of succor 
to the besieged; but they were not unacquainted with the 
activity of Scipio. 

Whilst the sea was at ebb, he placed five hundred men with 
ladders, along the lake, where the walls of Carthagena were 
lowest; he surrounded these walls with fresh troops, and ex- 
horted them to fight like Romans. The ladders were applied, 
and the soldiers shortly filled the whole extent of the walls. 

The besieged, although astonished, kept a good face every- 
where, and defended themselves with courage. The sea retired 
and left the lake everywhere fordable. This phenomena seemed 
a marvel to the Romans ; they hastened to climb the walls of 
Carthagena, destitute at that point of defenders, and penetrated 
into the city without meeting an obstacle. The confused Car- 
thaginians rushed to the citadel, and the Romans entered with 
them. 

Mago and his troops surrendered to Scipio, and the city was 
given up to pillage. During this scene of horror, a young 
person of exquisite beauty was brought to Scipio ; her graces 
attracted the eyes and admiration of all who were present. 

Scipio inquired what were her origin and family ; and he 
learned that she was affianced to Allucius, prince of the Cel- 
tiberians, who loved her exceedingly. 

He immediately sent for that prince, together with the 
parents of the young beauty. As soon as Allucius arrived 
Scipio took him to one side, and said, "We are both young; 
which circumstance enables me to speak more freely to you. My 
people who brought your affianced wife to me told me that you 
32 



498 TRUE FRIENDSHIP. 

loved her tenderly, and her great beauty leaves me no room to 
doubt that you do. Thereupon, reflecting that if, like you, I 
were about to form an engagement, and were not entirely 
occupied with the affairs of my country, I should wish that so 
honorable and legitimate a purpose should find favor; and I am 
extremely happy in the present conjuncture to render you such 
a service. She whom you are about to espouse has been 
among us as if she had been in the house of her father and 
mother; I have preserved her so as to make her a present 
worthy of you and of me. The only gratitude I require for 
this inestimable gift is, that you should become the friend of 
the Roman people. If you deem me a man of worth, if I 
have appeared so to the people of this province, be assured 
that there are in Rome many far better than I, and that there 
does not exist upon the face of the earth a nation you ought 
more to dread as an enemy or court as a friend, than mine." 
Allucius, permeated with joy and gratitude, kissed the hands 
of Scipio, and implored the gods to bless him for such purity 
and kindness. Scipio then sent for the parents of the lady, 
who had brought a large sum of money for her ransom. When 
they had found that he had restored her without a ransom, 
they conjured him to accept of that sum as a present, and 
declared that that fresh favor would heighten their joy and 
intensify their gratitude. 

Scipio could not resist their earnest entreaties ; he accepted 
the gift, and ordered it to be laid at his feet. Then, addressing 
Allucius, he said, " I add this sum to the dowry you are to 
receive from your father-in-law, and beg you to accept it as a 
nuptial present." The young prince, charmed with the virtue 
and generosity of Scipio, published throughout his province 
the praises of so magnanimous a conqueror. He said that a 
young hero had come into Spain, who resembled the gods ; 
for he subdued more by the splendor of his virtues and his 
benefits than by the power of his arms. Having made levies 
in the country he governed, he returned to Scipio, some days 
after, with fourteen hundred horsemen. To render the evidence 



A FAITHFUL AND NOBLE FRIENDSHIP. 



499 



of his gratitude more durable, Allucius caused the noble action 
of Scipio to be inscribed upon a silver shield, and presented it 
to him — a gift more glorious than any warlike triumph ! — 
Siege of Carthagena. 



A FAITHFUL AND NOBLE FRIENDSHIP. 




HEN Charles, V, who afterwards also be- 
came Emperor of Germany, was traveling 
from Holland to Spain to assume the 
crown of that country, bequeathed to him 
by his grandparents, Ferdinand and Isa- 
bella, he received into his retinue a young 
French Count named De Bossu. 

The extraordinary tallness of this young 
man, his fine physique, his splendid horsemanship, his obliging 
readiness in service, and his many other praiseworthy qualities 
of mind and heart, endeared him so strongly to the young 
King that he insisted on having the Count always at his side. 
On one occasion, when Charles had ordered a grand hunt, 
he started a wild boar and followed him into the thick forest 
with so much ardor that he lost his way before he realized his 
perilous situation; and no one of the party had the courage to 
follow him except De Bossu. 

In the hurry and excitement of the pursuit, this young man 
had the misfortune to wound himself with a poisoned dagger, 
which it was the custom in those days for all Spanish hunters 
to carry. 

As soon as Charles saw that his favorite was losing blood, 
he demanded to know whether the boar had injured him. De 
Bossu thereupon related the misfortune that had befallen him, 
and stated that he had no one to blame for the mishap but 
himself. 

The King well knew the deadly effects of the poison if it had 



500 



TRUE FRIENDSHIP. 



once permeated the blood, and his only thought was to save 
his favorite, unmindful of his own personal peril. He sprang 
quickly from his horse, and requested his friend to alight and 
submit himself entirely and unreservedly to his treatment. 
The latter made some excuses, but the King was determined 
to save his dear friend's life or die with him. 

He immediately removed the clothing from the wound, put 
up his lips and sucked out the blood repeatedly, and spat it 
away; and he soon had the satisfaction of realizing that his 
vigorous and heroic treatment was the means of saving his 
favorite's life without endangering his own or being subject to 
any ill effects afterward. 

Who will not applaud the generous and self-sacrificing 
friendship of the mightiest sovereign of his day! — From the 
German. 



THE POWER OF MUSIC. 




USTAVUS ADOLPHUS, Sweden's heroic 
king, was fond of music. The sweet voice 
of song, especially from the lips of child- 
hood, often moved him to tears. Once 
upon a time Gustavus Adolphus, after long 
and severe fighting, had conquered a strong- 
ly fortified town, in which were citizens who 
had been born within the limits of the 
Swedish rule, but had since found new homes. And all these 
people were condemned to death. They were marched out 
from the town at nightfall, to be held in camp until the follow- 
ing morning, when they were to be shot, for treason. Several 
of his officers interceded with the King for the lives of these 
poor people. 

But Gustavus felt that he had already granted enough. 
First — in the ruddy heat of his passion he had consigned the 



THE POWER OF MUSIC. 501 

whole tribe to death: but since then he had greatly modified 
the sentence, condemning only those of the former subjects of 
Sweden who had been taken with arms in their hands ; and 
from this no power of persuasion or argument could move 
him. All the talk of his old chaplain, about these people hav- 
ing only joined their fellows in protecting the homes of their 
wives and children, moved him not an atom. " They are trai- 
tors!" he said, "and as traitors they shall die!" 

At a late hour — it was past midnight — Gustavus Adolphus 
threw on his cloak and drew his slouched hat down over his 
eyes, and, staff in hand, wandered forth into the darkness. 

Without thinking whither he went, he slowly walked on, 
answering the sentinels as they hailed him, until at length his 
steps were arrested by a strain of music. 

"Who is that?" he asked of a sentinel whom he chanced to 
meet a moment later. 

" It is one of the prisoners, sire. The wife and children of 
one of their chief men have had permission to spend the night 
with the husband and father." 

The King nodded his thanks for his information, and moved 
on. Slowly he approached the tent from which the music 
issued, and as he drew near heard a deep, manly voice : — 

"Hush! Hush! Weep not, God will provide!" 

The King looked through the open seam of the cloth and 
saw a gray-haired man, with an imposing presence — a grand 
face and head, and a clear, flashing eye, surrounded by his wife 
and children, who clung to him with passionate tenderness. 

"Hush!" she said, "Let us not make these precious 
moments darker than they need be." 

It is but the fortune of war, my loved ones! 

" Come, my Hermione — sing to me once more our dear song 
of the Fatherland ! For, though Gustavus will take my life, 
yet I love the land that gave me birth. God bless dear 
Sweden, now and evermore! Now Hermione, sing! Come, 
let thy voice give my poor heart cheer, if it may be." 

Presently thereafter a beautiful girl of fifteen or sixteen sum- 



502 TRUE FRIENDSHIP. 

mers threw back the silken hood from her golden curls, and 
began to sing. 

Her song was the Swedes' oldest and most cherished piece 
of music — the words full of love and devotion, love of home 
and country — and the melody was peculiarly sweet and touch- 
ing. Never had the King heard it sung so grandly. The words 
fell upon his ear with a new meaning, and the music touched 
his spirit with a strangely awakening power. As the charming 
melody swelled to grander and grander tones, and the voice of 
the singer deepened and strengthened, the listener felt his heart 
hush with awe. And finally, when the last rich cadence died 
away, in mellow, melting echoes upon the upper air, he pressed 
his hands over his eyes and burst into tears. 

After a time Gustavus lifted his head, and looking once more 
through the aperture in the wall of the tent, he saw the family 
upon their knees, and heard the voice of the old man in prayer. 
He listened for a few seconds, and then turned and strode away 
toward his quarters, where he found two of his attendants 
sitting up, waiting for him, and to one of them he said : — 

" Colonel, I wish you to go to the prisoners' quarters, and 
in the large tent nearest to the river — it is at the extreme north- 
west of the camp — you will find the family of a prisoner 
named Hoven ; and of that family is a girl named Hermione; 
bring her to me. Assure her that no harm shall befall 
her." 

And when the messenger had gone the King turned to his 
table, and having found the necessary materials he went to work 
at writing. He wrote rapidly and heavily, like one moved by 
ponderous ideas, and had just finished his work when the 
colonel appeared, and with him the gentle songstress in com- 
pany. 

" Fear not, my child," the King said, the maiden standing 
trembling before him ; " I have sent for you because I wish to 
repay you for a great good you unconsciously did me this 
night. Do you call to mind that you sang the dear old song 
of Vasa — the hymn of the Fatherland ? " 



THE POWER OF MUSIC. 503 

" Yes, your majesty, I sang it for my father, who is to die 
on the morrow. Though no longer in Sweden, he dearly loves 
the memory of the land that gave him birth." 

" Well, I chanced to hear you sing ; and you shall ere long 
know how your song affected me. Here, take this paper, and 
go with it to the officer commanding the camp of the prisoners; 
Colonel Forsby will go with you. And, my child, the next 
time you sing that song, think of Gustavus Adolphus Vasa, 
and bear witness that his heart was not all hard, nor cold." 

The girl looked up into the monarch's face as he held forth 
the paper, and when she saw the genial, kindly look that beamed 
upon her, she obeyed the impulse of the moment, and caught 
his hand and kissed it. 

And when she went away she bore with her the royal order 
for the free pardon and instant release of all the prisoners. The 
old General to whom the order had been directed for promul- 
gation and execution was one of those who had earnestly 
pleaded in behalf of the condemned ; and we can readily im- 
agine the joy with which he received it. He fairly caught the 
beautiful messenger in his arms, and kissed her upon her fore- 
head, and blessed her ; and he went with her to the tent where 
her father was held, and followed her to publish the joyful 
tidings. 

And with the dawn of day the prisoners, to the number of 
two hundred, were mustered into line, many of them believing 
their hour had come, to receive the intelligence of pardon and 
freedom. 

What transpired beyond that can be imagined full as well as 
we can tell. We only add that Gustavus Adolphus, by the act 
of mercy, secured the friendship which was to be of incalculable 
value to him in the coming time. 

And one other thing : In less than a year from that time 
Colonel Ulric Forsby, of the King's staff, gained for a wife the 
beautiful singer whose sweet notes had melted the heart of 
Gustavus Adolphus, and given life and liberty and joy to 
suffering men. — Anonymous. 



504 



TRUE FRIENDSHIP. 



THE TROUBADOUR AND RICHARD CCEUR DE 

LION. 




OT only the place of Richard's confinement 
(when thrown into prison by the Duke of 
Austria), if we believe the literary history 
of the times, but even the circumstance of 
his captivity, was carefully concealed by 
his vindictive enemies; and both might 
have remained unknown but for the grate- 
ful attachment of a Provencal bard or min- 
strel, named Blondel, who had shared that prince's friendship 
and tasted his bounty. Having traveled all over the Euro- 
pean continent to learn the destiny of his beloved patron, 
Blondel accidentally got intelligence of a certain castle in Ger- 
many where a prisoner of distinction was confined and guarded 
with great vigilance. Persuaded by a secret impulse that this 
prisoner was the King of England, the minstrel repaired to the 
place. But the gates of the castle were shut against him, and 
he could obtain no information relative to the name or quality 
of the unhappy person it secured. In this extremity, he 
bethought himself of an expedient for making the desired dis- 
covery. He chanted, with a loud voice, some verses of a 
song which had been composed partly by himself, partly by 
Richard, and to his unspeakable joy, on making a pause, he 
heard it re-echoed and continued by the royal captive. To 
this discovery the English monarch is said to have eventually 
owed his release. In the following verses Mrs. Hemans erro- 
neously locates the place of Richard's captivity on the Rhine. 
The Castle of Duerrenstein is situated on a commanding 
height on the left bank of the Danube, some distance above 
Vienna. The ruins of this stronghold are still pointed out to 
the modern traveler. 



The Troubadour o'er many a plain 
Hath roamed unwearied, but in vain ; 



THE TR O UBAD O UR AND RICHARD CCEUR DE LION. 5Q5 

O'er many a rugged mountain scene, 
And forest wild, his track hath been ; 
Beneath Calabria's glowing sky- 
He hath sung the Songs of Chivalry; 
His voice hath swelled on the Alpine breeze, 
And rung through the snowy Pyrenees ; 
From Ebro's banks to Danube's wave, 
He hath sought his prince — the loved, the brave, 
And yet, if still on earth thou art, 
O Monarch of the lion heart! 
The faithful spirit which distress 
But heightens to devotedness, 
By toil and trial vanquished not, 
Shall guide thy minstrel to the spot. 

He hath reached a mountain hung with vine, 
And woods that wave o'er the lovely Rhine; 
The feudal towers that crest its height 
Frown in unconquerable might; 
Dark is their aspect of sullen state, 
No helmet hangs o'er the massy gate 
To bid the wearied pilgrim rest, 
At the Chieftain's board a welcome guest; 
Vainly rich evening's parting smile 
Would chase the gloom of the haughty pile. 
That midst bright sunshine lowers on high, 
Like a thunder cloud in a summer sky. 

Not these the halls where a child of song 
A while may speed the hours along ; 
Their echoes should repeat alone 
The tyrant's mandate, the prisoner's moan, 
Or the wild huntsman's bugle blast, 
When his phantom train is hurrying past. 
The weary minstrel paused — his eye 
Roved o'er the scene despondingly ; 
Within the lengthening shadow cast 
By the fortress towers and ramparts vast, 
Lingering he gazed — the rocks around 
Sublime in savage grandeur frowned ; 
Proud guardians of the regal flood, 
In giant strength the mountains stood, 
By torrents cleft, by tempests riven, 
Yet mingling with the calm, blue heaven, 



506 TRUE FRIENDSHIP. 

Their peaks were bright with a sunny glow, 
But the Rhine, all shadowy, rolled below ; 
In purple tints the vineyards smiled, 
But the woods beyond waved dark and wild ; 
Nor pastoral pipe, nor convent's bell, 
Was heard on the sighing breeze to swell ; 
But all was lonely, silent, rude, 
A stern, yet glorious, solitude. 

But hark ! that solemn stillness breaking, 
The Troubadour's wild song is waking; 
Full oft that song, in days gone by, 
Hath cheered the sons of chivalry ; 
It hath swelled o'er Judah's mountains lone ; 
Hermon ! thy echoes have learned its tone ; 
On Esdraelon's plain its notes have rung, 
The leagued Crusaders' tents among ; 
'Twas loved by the Lion-heart, who won 
The palm in the field of Ascalon ; 
And now afar, o'er the rocks of the Rhine 
Peals the bold strain of Palestine. 

The Troubadour's Song. 

" Thine hour is come, and the stake is set ! " 
The soldan cried to the captive Knight ; 

' And the sons of the Prophet in throngs have met 
To gaze on the fearful sight. 

" But be our faith by thy lips professed — 
The faith of Mecca's shrine — 
Cast down the red cross that marks thy vest, 
And life shall yet be thine." 

" I have seen the flow of my bosom's blood, 
And I gazed with undaunted eye ; 
I have borne the bright cross through fire and flood, 
And thinkest thou I fear to die ? 

" I have stood where thousands, by Salem's towers, 
Have fallen for the name Divine ; 
And the faith that cheered their closing hours 
Shall be the light of mine." 



THE TR UBAD O UR AND RICH A RD CCE UR DE LION. 507 

"Thus wilt thou die, in the pride of health, 
And the glow of youth's fresh bloom ? 
Thou art offered life, and pomp, and wealth, 
Or torture and the tomb. - ' 

" I have been where the crown of thorns was twined 
For a dying Saviour's brow; 
He spurned the treasures that lured mankind, 
And I reject them now ! " 

"Art thou the son of a noble line 
In a land that is fair and blest? 
And doth not thy spirit, proud captain ! pine, < 
Again on its shores to rest ? 

"Thine own is the choice, to hail once more 
The soil of thy father's birth, 
Or to sleep when thy lingering pangs are o'er, 
Forgotten in foreign earth." 

"Oh ! fair are the vine-clad hills that rise 
In the country of my love ; 
But yet, though cloudless my native skies, 
There's a brighter clime above ! " 

The bard hath paused — for another tone 

Blends with the music of his own ; 
And his heart beats high with hope again, 

As a well-known voice prolongs the strain. ) 

"Are there none within thy father's hall, 
Far o'er the wide blue main, 
Young Christian ! left to deplore thy fall, 
With sorrow, deep and vain ?" 

" There are hearts that still, through all the past, 
Unchanging, have loved me well ; 
There are eyes whose tears were streaming fast 
When I bade my home farewell. 

"Better they wept o'er the warrior's bier, 
Than th' apostate's living stain ; 
There's a land where those who loved when here 
Shall meet to love again." 



508 TRUE FRIENDSHIP. 

'Tis he ! thy prince — long sought, long lost, 
The leader of the red-cross host ! 
'Tis he! to none thy joy betray, 
Young Troubadour ! away, away ! 
Away to the island of the brave, 
The gem on the bosom of the wave, 
Arouse the sons of the noble soil, 
To win their lion from the toil ; 
And free the wassail-cup shall flow, 
Bright in each hall the hearth shall glow ; 
The festal board shall be richly crowned, 
While knights and chieftains revel round, 
And a thousand harps with joy shall ring, 
When merry England hails her king. 

— Mrs. Felicia D. Hemans 



ALPHABETICAL LIST OF AUTHORS AND AUTHORITIES 



A. 

PAGE 

Abbott, John S. C 17 

Advocate, Nashville Christian 74 

New York " , 178 

Agassiz, Louis 4°3 

Alford, Dean Henry 4 2 4 

Alger, Horatio, Jr 9 1 

Alison, Archibald , 65 

Anecdote, World of 37 2 

Archer, Thomas 96 

Arnold, Edwin *5 2 

Aspinwall, George 149 

B. 

Bancroft, George 217 

Bancroft, Hubert Howe 364 

Barber, Miss E. G 413 

Beecher, Henry Ward 422 

Betham, Matilda 125 

Black Hawk 452 

Blair, Rev. James, D. D 478 

Bowles, William Lisle 58 

Britain, Heroes of 86 

Browning, Robert 337 

Bryant, William Cullen 265, 279, 466 

Buerger, G. A 146 

Bulwer, Edward Lytton 132 

Burke, Edmund 58, 300 

Burns, Robert 348 

Butler, Rev. C. M., d. d 45 6 

Butterworth, Hezekiah 78 

Byron, Lord 120, 169, 355 

C. 

Campbell, Thomas 292, 474 

Carter, Miss J. M. S 152 

Carthagena, Siege of 49^ 

Chambers, William 254, 377 

Chicago Standard 15 2 

Choate, Rufus 454 

Christian at Work 102 

Cicero 335 

Coleridge, S. T 3 6o > 4°5 

Craik, Dinah Muloch 166 

Creasy, E. S '. „ 142 

Croly, George 1 20 

509 



510 LIST OF AUTHORS AND AUTHORITIES. 



PAGE 



Curran, John P -759 

Curtis, George William 368 

Curtius, Quintus 373 

D. 

Dale, Rev. T 323 

De Amicis Edmondo 41 

De Custine 104 

De Genlis, Madame 216 

De Lamartine, Alphonso 406 

De Liagno's Repertory 383 

Demosthenes 275, 301 

De Quincey, Thomas 68 

De Vere, Sir Aubrey .... 44 

Dickens, Charles 87, 269 

DTsraeli, Benjamin , 40 

Donovan, J. W 181 

E. 

Eclectic Review 340 

Edwards, M. Betham 347 

Ellet, Mrs. E. F ...... 136, 200 

Emmet, Robert 341 

Everhart, J. B 70 

Everett, Edward 24 

Examiner and Chronicle 410 

F. 

Fabricius 370 

Famous and Decisive Battles, etc 192 

Fenelon, Archbishop 257, 489 

Fields, Mrs. Annie 108 

Fliedner, Life of 392 

Foster, John 458 

French, From the 284 

Frost, John 249 

G. 

Gazette, Lewiston, Me 1 77 

German, From the 361, 499 

Gibbon, Edward 248, 286, 371 

"Glimmerings in the Dark " 418 

Golden Days 388 

Golden Rule 401 

Goldsmith, Oliver 106, 304, 434 

Gough, John B 93 

Great Sieges of History , \ 468 

Great Violinists, The 381 

Greeley, Horace 81 

H. 

Hallam, Henry 21 

Halleck, Fitz Greene 159 

Harper's Magazine 108 

" Voting People 189 

Headley, J. T 212 

Heber, Reginald 133 

Hemans, Mrs. F. D t>3i j 43> 5°4 



LIST OF A UTHORS AND A UTHORITIES. 511 

PAGE 

Henry, Patrick 330 

Heroes of Britain, etc 86 

Hilliard, H. W., 215 

History, Great Sieges of 468 

Holmes, Oliver Wendell 190 

Hood, E. Paxton, d. d 223,477 

Homer 461 

Hume, David 76 

Hunt, Leigh.. no, 180 

I. 

Independent, New York 415 

Irving, Washington 28, 126 

J- 

Jameson, Mrs. Anna 386 

Jones, Edward C 363 

Josephus, Flavius 47, 333 

Jowett, Prof 353 

K. 

Kellogg, Rev. E 122, 309 

King, Capt. Charles, U. S. A 192 

Knowles, J. Sheridan 298 

L. 

Lamartine 406 

Lewiston, Me., Gazette 177 

"Life of Man" 470 

Longfellow, Henry W 208, 315 

Lossing, Benson J 199,481 

Lowell, |ames Russell 368 

Lowell, Robert 183 

Lytton, Edward Bulwer 132 

M. 

Macaulay, T. B 48, 219, 238 

Merriweather's "Glimmerings," etc 416 

Milton, John 48 

Mirabeau 344 

Mitford, Mary Russell 303 

Montgomery, James 45 

Moore, Tom 126 

Muhlenburg, Life of 312 

Murphy, Arthur 32 

Murry, Frank 97 

N. 

Nashville Christian Advocate 74 

National Intelligence)' 197 

New York Christian Advocate 178 

Nineteenth Century 138 

O. 

Oberlin, Life of 44° 

Old Song 175 

P. 

Paul, Saint 43 2 

Phillips, Wendell 240 



512 LIST OF A UTHORS AND A UTHORITIES. 

PAGE 

Pierpont, John 311 

Pitt, William 243 

Plutarch 400 

Pope, Alexander 405 

Prescott, William H 62 

Quintus Curtius 373 

Quarterly Review 418 

R. 

Repertory, De Liagno's 383 

Review, Eclectic 349 

Robbins, William , 176 

Rowe, Nicholas 235 

Rush, Richard 329 

Russell, William H 113 

S. 

Schiller, Frederic 28, 51, 449 

Scott, Sir Walter 247, 394 

Shakespeare, William 51, 278, 430 

Sheridan, R. B 314 

Shiel, Richard Lalor 307 

Siege of Carthagena 496 

Smith, James 379 

Socrates 353 

Southern Patriot 205 

Southey, Robert 88, 269, 290 

Sparks, Jared 493 

Sprague, W. B 447 

Stevenson's "Working and Praying" 446 

Story, Joseph 306 

Strickland, Miss Agnes 325 

Sullivan, Alex, M„ M. P 419 

T. 

Tacitus 273 

Tennyson, Alfred 113, 162 

Thackeray, William M 262 

Thomson, James 353 

Thorpe, Rose Hartwick 140 

V. 
Vere, de, Sir Aubrey 44 

W. 

Ware, William 286 

Whittier, John G 282, 435 

Willis, N. P 117, 484 

Wirt, William 345 

Wise, Rev. Daniel, d. d 429 

Wordsworth, William ; , 186, 282, 409, 418 

Working and Praying, etc 446 

World of Anecdote 372 

Wylie, J. A 276 



